Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1556 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-01-25
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 139 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalises the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous exile under the Witness Protection Program. The director's kinetic style is perfect for recounting Hill's ruthless rise to power in the 1950s as well as his drugged-out fall in the late 1970s; in fact, no one has ever rendered the mental dislocation of cocaine better than Scorsese. Scorsese uses period music perfectly, not just to summon a particular time but to set a precise mood. GoodFellas is at least as good as The Godfather without being in the least derivative of it. Joe Pesci's psycho improvisation of Mobster Tommy DeVito ignited Pesci as a star; Lorraine Bracco achieves a career-defining performance as the love of Hill's life; and every supporting role, from Paul Sorvino to Robert De Niro, is a miracle.

Amazon.co.uk Review
Given the number of truly great Mafia movies over the years it would be a brave soul who classed GoodFellas as the best. But surely we can all agree that it is, at the very least, first among equals. Martin Scorsese took the factual details of mobster Henry Hill's life, as written by author Nicholas Pileggi, and turned it into a cinematic experience that has burnt itself indelibly into the consciousness of every viewer, and which now forms a touchstone in the lexicon of film and TV-making (what is The Sopranos if not GoodFellas: The Soap?) For aficionados it's a virtuoso exercise in filmmaking, showcasing remarkable and innovative use of steadicam shots, freeze-frame, voice-over narration, editing and incidental music (you'll never be able to listen to "Layla" the same way again). Every would-be hotshot director from Quentin Tarantino to Doug Liman to Jon Favreau has paid homage to it.

But above all that, it's an extraordinarily visceral, gripping and thoroughly enjoyable piece of storytelling as we witness the glory days of organised crime from the protagonist's viewpoint; then, abruptly after one bloody murder too far, we see him decline in a spiral of drugs, violence and paranoia. The principal triumvirate of Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci ("You think I'm funny? I'm here to amuse you?") and Robert DeNiro are utterly convincing as the three wiseguys. If you haven't seen it for a while, watch out for many familiar Sopranos faces in the rest of the cast, not least of course the wonderful Lorraine Bracco.

On the DVD: Finally, GoodFellas gets a worthy DVD release, with the feature presented in a new anamorphic 16:9 digital transfer, accompanied by two separate commentary tracks. Scorsese, Pileggi and other collaborators are present on a patchwork and partial track which is too disjointed to be really satisfying; fortunately on the second track, Henry Hill himself is joined by ex-FBI agent Edward McDonald to chat about their own memories of the events depicted in the movie. On the second disc there are four new documentaries which look back at the making of the picture, at its effect on other filmmakers, at Scorsese's creative process, and the true-life background to the film. A gold-plated essential item for every DVD collection. --Mark Walker

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 10
French\Italian
English\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English\Dolby Surround French Italian
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dolby Digital Surround
Interactive Menu
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers
Arabic\Dutch\English\French\Italian\Portuguese\Spanish

Customer Reviews

brillaint
this film is the closest rival to the godfather an absolute brilliant film with a great cast pesci is brilliant along with de niro but liotta is brillaint in his role. with background naratting this film must be one of the all time best gangster movies i have seen,

other films don't compare
This is a brilliant film. Definitely the greatest mobster film to date. As with Casino, Joe Pesci steals the show for me, although the rest of the acting was also fantastic. The only problem for me is that other when I compare this to other great films it makes them look bad!

Great film, awful disc
I didn't read the reviews before I bought it, because I knew what a great film it is.
Big mistake, because I wouldn't have bought it if I'd read them.

It's a double sided disc, which means you have to get up halfway through and turn it over. Why? Why do this?

It's also a poor quality transfer (as another reviewer said, it's barely better than VHS).

Avoid this version like the plague.