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Lorene Scafaria recommended GoodFellas (1990) in Movies (curated)

 
GoodFellas (1990)
GoodFellas (1990)
1990 | Crime, Drama, Thriller

"For me, it is the most alive and electric filmmaking. [Martin Scorsese is] obviously one of the greats, but he brought that ’70s filmmaking to 1990, which… I can’t believe it’s a 1990 film. I love gangster films and I love The Godfather, but I am a Goodfellas girl. I thought there was just so much captured in the masculinity of it and the relationships between men, the family dynamic, the structure of it, the mafia, that sort of hierarchy and camaraderie. I just think it’s one of the most exciting films ever made, of course. The writing is extraordinary, as is the improvisation of it. And seeing what he puts in a frame during a scene, like Joe Pesci telling the story, and you think it’s a funny scene when you realize it’s really just like these two setups over and over and that these… You sort of see the layout of the guys in the background who’s listening and the tension that he’s able to create by just hanging on something. That was something that I was trying to bring into [Hustlers]: in terms of how he treated violence, that was something that I felt about how to treat the nudity, in a way. So it was a touchstone for me in how to, not just approach anti-heroes or an underworld, but also just… What’s the difference between the gun and a body as being used, being weaponized? And an outfit, a bandage dress, being weaponized, you know? And the role that each of them play in that hustle and in the group."

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JT (287 KP) rated Safe (2012) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020  
Safe (2012)
Safe (2012)
2012 | Action, Drama
6
7.0 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
There doesn’t seem to be a lot that Jason Statham cannot do, if he’s not leaping from building to building he’s punching bad guys through walls, as someone told me once “it’s all chewing gum for the mind.”

Safe is pretty much that, Statham plays Luke Wright an ex-cage fighter among other things whose family are murdered after he fails to throw a fight for a Russian mob boss. Instead of sending him to the grave the Russians’ warn Statham that anyone he gets close to they’ll kill. So he becomes a drifter, a homeless loner. That is until he comes across Mei, a young girl with a mathematical mind who has memorized some numbers for the Triads.

The numbers are the combination to a safe containing a $3om haul. However, it seems that the Russian Mafia have taken an interest in Mei as well as a group of corrupt NYPD cops. The film plays out as you would expect it to, with Statham taking the girl under his wing and gets given the chance to kick some ass once again. “You, the garbage collector?” wails one poor Russian, ” I never collected the garbage, I disposed of it” quips Statham.

Safe carries on at cat and mouse pace with everyone after Statham and the girl. There are some great action set pieces as you would expect, and they are performed with ferocious ferocity and cool like choreography. There isn’t anything unusual here really, the supporting cast amble along but stand back far enough to let The Stath do his thing.

The relationship with Mei is formed well and has a believable level of trust between the pair as Wright attempts to play the three chasing parties off against each other. It’s what you’d expect and there is no question of being short changed here.