Goodfellas

Well, to put it simply, Goodfellas was not good. Maybe because it's an older movie and this was my first time ever seeing it, or maybe that as a true story it was lacking in plot. I dont know.

So this is the story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) who's whole life's ambition is to be a gangster. He becomes an errand boy for the head honcho Paulie, and along the way he meets Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) who becomes his ultimate idol. He also becomes close with Tommy (Joe Pesci) who's kind of a hothead and unpredictable. Well his dream comes true and he becomes a great gangster. A lot of how these guys make their money is by stealing things while in transit to their destination and selling them for a higher price.

He also meets a girl named Karen while on a double date with Tommy. He is too focused on his career to really pay attention to her, but eventually she gets his attention and he likes what he sees. They get married and he gets rich, but she has a hard time adjusting to the lifestyle of a gangster's wife. Don't worry, eventually she gets used to it.

Tommy ends up killing a guy in the heat of the moment for no reason other then he was insulted a tiny bit. The guys go bury the body and thats the end of it supposedly. Months later questions start arising and other gangs start wondering what happened to the guy.

Lots of years go by. Henry and Karen's marriage is a bit rocky and he also starts a relationship with a new girlfriend. He, Paulie and Jimmy end up going to jail and in order to get by Henry starts selling drugs. After they get out Paulie warns that the drugs have to stop, and that they should get back to the old business. Well Henry does it anyway and sells cocaine. He has his newest mistress cut the coke in her apartment.

Jimmy and some other guys set up a huge heist at the JFK airport and get about 6 million dollars from it. Well some of the guys aren't smart about it and start spending lots of money fast. Jimmy doesn't like that. Eventually in order to cut as many connections as possible to the robbery, he kills almost everyone involved. He doesn't kill Henry who wasn't involved in it, but Henry still got some of the take. Tommy also doesn't get killed because Jimmy, Tommy and Henry consider themselves a team almost, and a goodfellas to each other.

Well eventually Henry's coke-hazed days come to an end. He goes back to jail. When he gets out he was planning on selling coke from his last shipment to help them survive, but Karen flushed it down the toilet during a raid on their house. Tommy was about to be "made", becoming a leader in their community, but instead he got killed in revenge for the guy he killed in the moment way back when. Henry lied to Jimmy and Paulie too many times and so they decide to have him killed too. But Henry suspects that something is up and so he decides to rat on Paulie and Jimmy in exchange for Witness Protection. He lived in WP until this movie came out, and was so excited that he was like "Everybody, that was me!" They kicked him out.

This was set in the late sixties-eighties. And the decor was insane. I never knew that such crazy wallpaper existed. I think the actors did a good job, but the plot was just really slow.

Andrew's Closing Thoughts: One of my all time favorite gangster movies.

Up Next: The Goonies

Good Will Hunting

 

This is supposed to be one of the greatest movies ever apparently. I have never seen it all the way through, but Andrew really loves it. We have a (now) all-star cast: Baby Ben Affleck, Baby Casey Affleck, Baby Matt Damon, Stellan Skarsgard, Minnie Driver and Robin Williams. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon actually wrote this movie and won awards for it.

The setting is Boston (as is basically every Ben Affleck Movie). We open up to Will (Matt Damon) working on some very complicated math problems. Then all of a sudden at MIT some math problem open to the students that was stumping them for ages appears to be solved. The campus is all abuzz with who the genius is.

Then we meet a group of guys just cruising the streets, when all of a sudden Will comes across his bully from kindergarten. He decides its time to settle the score and so a street brawl ensues. Nothing says brawl like beating somebody up in a windbreaker, as is the Affleck brothers' case. Will gets caught by police and is arrested. Turns out he is not a first offender. He has been in and out of the system since childhood. Foster care, lots of assault charges etc., etc.

The professor of the math class with the mystery problem see's Will answering a new problem on the board, but doesn't get a name. Will is not actually a student there, but a janitor! He find out who Will is and goes to his hearing about his latest criminal activity. True to the genius character Will is, he is defending himself in court. Unfortunately because he also assaulted a cop, he gets sentenced. The Professor( Skarsgard) makes a deal with the judge that Will will be released under his care on the condition that he help him with math at MIT and that he sees a therapist.

During all this, Will has met Skylar(Minnie Driver) who could very possibly be the one.

Now the search for a shrink begins. Will reads their books before he visits them and then messes with them during their sessions together, to the point they become pissed off and want nothing to do with him. As a last hope, the Professor reaches out to an old roommate. Sean (Robin Williams) is a psych professor at a community college. He has recently experienced the death of his beloved wife and seems to have stopped living as well. At his first meeting with Will, Will is able to dissect things about Sean's inner struggles just by looking at something he painted. Things get heated.

Sean decides to keep seeing Will because he is intrigued. At the their next meeting, one of the best scenes of the movie occurs.



This scene has become so iconic and loved that after Robin Williams' untimely death this past month, people took to this bench where the scene was filmed and used it as an impromptu  memorial. There is even a petition going around to erect a Robin Williams Statue in this park.



Well he and Will slowly begin to build a bond while Will is constantly showing up all these Ivy Leaguers with his mad math skills.  He is constantly getting pressured over what he should do to use his genius ability. But he just wants to work construction with his pals! Or rather he's really afraid to actually try so he just settles for the life in construction. His girl Skylar is constantly wanting to know more about his past and his family, and he keeps lying and brushing the subject off. He thinks once she learns of the abuse and terrible childhood he had, she wont want to be with him. They have a very emotional fight and it was probably the best scene that Minnie Driver has ever had in her entire career. Things leave pretty tense but the truth is finally out there.

His friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck) admits to Will that he has always had high hopes for him and that it is Will's responsibility to go and do something amazing with the talents he has been given for Chuckie, because he is well aware that he will only be a construction worker. This conversation, along with a breakthrough he has with Sean about realizing "It's not his fault" for his past" allows him to possibly dream about the future and its real possibilities. He is also able to love and trust again.

He accepts a position with a prestigious firm that The Professor set up for him, but on the verge of starting this new phase, he decides to travel to California to go meet up with Skylar who is now attending med school at Stanford. He leaves a note with Sean saying "He had to go see about a girl"


It was a really great movie!! Tons of F-Bombs, and their bostonian accents were a little crazy, but hey, that's a Ben Affleck movie!!

Andrew's Closing Thought: My Favorite Robin Williams bearded movie role.

Up Next: Goodfellas