I watched two movies yesterday: Slevin, which was really terrible, and Goodfellas, which I believe is one of the perfect movies.
I like Robert Zemeckis' very simple definition of a perfect movie, from his commentary for Back to the Future: a perfect movie is a movie where every frame advances either plot or character.
Back to the Future is one of the perfect movies. Goodfellas is as well - there's not a single shot, line of dialogue or camera placement that doesn't help tell this strange and brutal story.
Some of the Abrahams/Zucker comedies like Airplane! and Naked Gun are perfect movies, and the last perfect movie I saw was The 40 Year-Old Virgin. I think that makes a good point about comedies. The people who make comedies know, if it's not funny, you have to cut it.
Zucker cut a whole sequence out of the end of Naked Gun where the whole stadium sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Instead, he ended the movie after the last joke: Leslie Nielsen slaps O.J. Simpson on the back and O.J.'s wheelchair rolls down a flight of stairs as Priscilla Presley says "Frank, everyone should have a friend like you." O.J. hits the railing. Bam, end of movie.
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4 comments:
i also think you're forgetting the fact that any movie which features ray liotta doing copious amounts of blow is pretty much guaranteed to be perfect.
Whereas Johnny Depp doing blow is pretty much a guaranteed loser.
hmm… if you like goodfellas you should see casino, it doesn't trail off so much at the end and blow has it's highlights.
I am not answering the "Casino is better than Goodfellas" comment in public because I intend to quietly beat you in private. If you use an open palm, it doesn't leave a scar.
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