The Untouchables (1987)

Blu Ray "Scam"?

I MUST agree totally with one other reviewer, that despite being "Blu Ray", this version of "Untouchables" is virtually IDENTICAL to my original DVD! Don't get me wrong, the picture looks VERY good, but NOT like current Blu Ray discs. For example, "Training Day" looks almost like VIDEO it's so clear. Yeah, I know "Un" is quite a few years older and that's why I mention the word "Scam" in my title. Movie Studios WANT you to purchase a film on Blu Ray to REPLACE the one you probably ALREADY have on DVD, but, buyer beware, Blu Ray doesn't always mean BETTER, ESPECIALLY with older films. July 19, 2008

Three-fourths Good

The first three fourths of this movie are excellent. The Last quarter, while suspenseful, is full of plot holes which cast a pall of unbelievability over the film. Acting, Directing, and Dialogue are snappy, the film is fast paced, and quite rivetting. June 24, 2008

Prohibition Through Hollywood's Eyes

Thoroughly enjoyable period-piece action flick. Interesting that Predator came out the same year. The Untouchables is every bit as violent, macho and bloody, yet Predator is seen as a mindless testosterone-overflowing glorified B-movie for teenage boys (which it is) and The Untouchables is seen as a "real" movie for full-grown adults.

The difference is, of course, De Palma, Mamet and co. make a genuine effort to place The Untouchables in a certain, albeit largely fictional, time and place and populate this world with characters who are allowed to act like something at least resembling real people. They do this with Academy Award nominated sets, music and costumes. In addition, the script is peppered with topical references like J. Edgar Hoover and Amos n' Andy. Also, it helps that the men in this movie have families, thoughts and emotions.

The genius of The Untouchables is how, as Pauline Kael said in her review, the movie makes no real effort to accurately portray the 1930's but presents it as closely as the average person thinks the 1930's must have been like. Sure, Eliot Ness and Al Capone were real people and Prohibition really happened but, deep down inside, The Untouchables cares as about much about America in the 1930's as Predator does.

The movie manages to please two audiences at the same time. The action/adventure crowd will like the tough-guy dialogue, fisticuffs, frequent gunplay and unsparing blood spurts. The adult drama crowd will like the sets, Connery's performance, the atmosphere and the pseudo-historicity. Both will dig the cool cars. June 5, 2008

Rare Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner was a different actor in this piece. Well written and well acted. May 17, 2008

Bigotry and nationality sterotyping abound in this overblown

supposed saga regarding the "gansters" in old Chicago. It looked to me as if the criminals and the "good guys" were just about the same. For the corruption in the police force and the most pure "Eliot Ness" looked like it ran about neck and neck with the supposed "gangsters". Of course the added racial slurs thrown in by the most high Sean Connery another overrated "actor". Just terrible, don't bother with this one. May 12, 2008

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