MovieSorter

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Bugsy
Great 66 Points 1991

A glamorous take on the gangster who gave us modern Las Vegas, Bugsy was Hollywood legend Warren Beatty’s last great role, complemented in no small measure by the potent chemistry he achieved with future wife Annette Bening.

Though a commercial disappointment, the movie has aged well, full of …

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The Iceman
Great 83 Points 2013

Pity The Iceman – the movie, not the Mafia hitman. Great mob movies are broadly treasured, even more when they’re about real guys who committed real crimes. And yet this one has flown under the radar.

Six-four, with big Polish hands, the Iceman could take anybody and often did, mostly unde…

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WikChip Video Serious Business
Kill the Irishman
Great 83 Points 2011

Who knew there was another only-in-America mobster story ideally suited for a biographical crime movie? Kill the Irishman is that movie and Danny Greene is the mobster it brings to life, a self-made man who rose to run a large swath of the Cleveland rackets in the Seventies. It’s a rich story, …

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WikChip Video Smart, Perspicacious, Controlled, Brutal
Gomorra
Great 66 Points 2008

A new addition to the canon of great mafia movies, Gomorra entertainingly details the mundane savagery and sociopathic activities of Italy’s oldest organized crime organization. Darkly funny, Gomorra brings to life Roberto Saviano’s hugely important book

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WikChip Image Camorra Country: Cancer @ the heart o...
Stand Up Guys
Great 83 Points 2013

Bucket List for Wise Guys is how to think of the great genre spoof Stand Up Guys. From perfect title to iconic moviestars, Fisher Steven’s film from a rookie writer’s script smartly uses Pacino, Walken & Arkin. Plus he surrounds the three elders with nubile ladies, some of them ladies of th…

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WikChip Video Old School Pacino
Cop Land
Great 66 Points 1997

De Niro, Keitel, Liotta, Berg and Stallone – with a helluva cast behind `em – turned Cop Land into a cauldron of cinematic testosterone. A strong sense of place and vivid filmmaking on both sides of the Hudson made it well worth a view. Genre requirements and trite political poison limited it…

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WikChip Image Stallone & Sciorra
Miller's Crossing
Really Great 79 Points 1990

This highly stylized production by the Brothers Coen has great fun with the cinematic staples of old time gangster movies. Certainly one of the best movies the Brothers C have made, Miller’s Crossing features scene stealing performances by Jon Polito and others.

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American Gangster
Really Great 123 Points 2007

Denzel and Crowe at the top of their games, combined with a compelling (if familiar), interesting and assured story make this an almost perfect gangster movie, just shy of the Godfathers and Goodfellas….

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Get Shorty
Really Great 66 Points 1995

Is there a more enjoyable Elmore Leonard movie or charismatic John Travolta movie than Get Shorty? So what if it’s a trifle, a light crime-comedy. It’s a movie about the love of movies, which it celebrates with sleek Hollywood panache, rich Elmore Leonard flair and charming details. In short, *…

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WikChip Video Chili Palmer gets lost in Touch of Evil
All the Money i...
Really Great 66 Points 2017

All the Money in the World slays as a kidnapping thriller and as a biopic of the legendary J. Paul Getty, once the world’s richest man. The thriller jumps off to a startling beginning, takes a series of surprising turns, and remains thrilling right up to the well-known ending. That’s a solid sh…

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