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Scarface

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Scarface (1983)

87%
100%
91%
N/A
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87 %
Reviews Counted: 38 Fresh: 33  Rotten:5 Average Rating: 7.4/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 2 hrs 50 mins

Synopsis: Brian De Palma's blood-and-sun-drenched saga of a Cuban deportee's rise to the top of Miami's cocaine business has become something of a popular classic since its release; it's been referenced in rap songs and subsequent gangster movies and quoted the world over. Despite this lovefest with... Brian De Palma's blood-and-sun-drenched saga of a Cuban deportee's rise to the top of Miami's cocaine business has become something of a popular classic since its release; it's been referenced in rap songs and subsequent gangster movies and quoted the world over. Despite this lovefest with the dialogue, the film's brutal violence and lack of positive characters still make it controversial and disliked by certain critics. Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, whose intelligence, guts, and ambition help him skyrocket from dishwasher to the top of a criminal empire but whose eventual paranoia and incestuous desire for his kid sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) prove his undoing. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Tony's neglected coke-addicted trophy wife, and Steven Bauer is his concerned friend. F. Murray Abraham, Robert Loggia, and Paul Shenar are some of Tony's sleazy business partners and potential killers. Oliver Stone wrote the expletive-packed screenplay, based on Howard Hawks's 1932 version--which was ostensibly about Al Capone and starred Paul Muni and George Raft. The synth-heavy Giorgio Moroder score expertly evokes the drug-fueled decadence of 1980s Miami, and De Palma provides several of his elaborate set pieces, including a horrific showstopper in a motel room with a chain saw. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia

Director: Brian De Palma
Screenwriter: Oliver Stone
Producer: Martin Bregman

DVD Info

Release:

Jun 9, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Snap Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, French, Spanish
  • Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Deleted Scenes

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review | comment Comment
02/09/06
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

This is very much a film of the 80s in its portrayal not of moral decline (there is little declining left to do) but of unstoppable ego-centrism. With guns.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/17/01
Nick Hilditch
BBC
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5/5

Perfomances are excellent...despite its moralistic conclusion...

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
5/5

Pacino, of course, goes way over the top and through the floor on the other side.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/13/07
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image
N/A

Scarface could be the male moviegoer's answer to Mommie Dearest ... when it's not grotesquely melodramatic, it somehow manages to be incredibly dull.

Full Review | comment 2 Comments
07/10/07
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
05/31/07
J.B. Mitchell
Orlando Weekly
Ratings Image
N/A

Painted in exuberant, extravagant swaths of red, Brian De Palma's foolhardy epic is a thing of delirious grandeur

Full Review | comment Comment
08/28/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image
2/5

Ugly and overrated

comment 1 Comment
10/21/05
Jon Niccum
Lawrence Journal-World
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A

What's left to say?

comment Comment
08/15/05
Bill Clark
FromTheBalcony
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4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/29/05
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
Ratings Image
3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/30/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
B

Sometime it fun.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/27/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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3/5

Stylish ultra violence = one popular film for many, sad to say.

comment Comment
06/08/05
Steve Crum
Video-Reviewmaster.com
Ratings Image
4/4

The most frantic and assured film of Brian De Palma's impressive career.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/27/05
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
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B+

A slyly ironic vision of America’s still-thriving meritocracy.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/04/05
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
Ratings Image
3.5/5

To be honest, Scarface isn't exactly what you could call a 'good' movie. It's overwritten, overacted and overdirected (not to mention overlong). And yet, against the odds, it still works.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/05/05
Ethan Alter
NYC Film Critic
Ratings Image
3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
10/12/04
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion
Ratings Image
5/5

Pacino, em mais um de seus grandes momentos, transforma Montana em um ícone do gênero e da década de 80, conduzindo um filme que seria fartamente copiado nos anos seguintes.

comment Comment
05/22/04
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image
N/A

...Brian De Palma’s criminally over-the-top remake of the 1932 Howard Hawks gangster classic

Full Review | comment Comment
02/27/04
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
Ratings Image
7/10

As time goes by, films like Scarface only gain in their importance.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/27/04
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Related Forums

REEL_REVIEWER
(1983/Rated R)-Brian De Palma's SCARFACE is still a fun watch thanks to Al Pacino!!!
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REEL_REVIEWER
(1983/Rated R)-Brian De Palma's SCARFACE is still a fun watch thanks to Al Pacino!!!
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REEL_REVIEWER
(1983/Rated R)-Brian De Palma's SCARFACE is still a fun watch thanks to Al Pacino!!!
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REEL_REVIEWER
(1983/Rated R)-Brian De Palma's SCARFACE is still a fun watch thanks to Al Pacino!!!
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