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