Posts Tagged ‘crime-epic’

The Untouchables (1987)

Friday, September 26th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | History | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Kevin Costner | Sean Connery | Charles Martin Smith | Andy Garcia | Robert De Niro | Richard Bradford | Jack Kehoe | Brad Sullivan | Billy Drago | Patricia Clarkson | Vito D'Ambrosio | Steven Goldstein | Peter Aylward | Don Harvey | Robert Swan
Directors: Brian De Palma
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Federal agent Elliot Ness assembles a personal team of mob fighters to bring Chicago crime boss Al Capone to justice using unconventional means during the mob wars of the 1920s. This fictionalized account of the arrest of Al Capone is heavy on style and gunfire. The end shootout combines a baby carriage and stairs with a nod to Eisenstein’s _The Battleship Potemkin_.

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Genres: Drama | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Al Pacino | Robert Duvall | Diane Keaton | Robert De Niro | John Cazale | Talia Shire | Lee Strasberg | Michael V. Gazzo | G.D. Spradlin | Richard Bright | Gastone Moschin | Tom Rosqui | Bruno Kirby | Frank Sivero | Francesca De Sapio
Directors: Francis Ford Coppola
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The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.

Bound by Honor (aka “Blood in, blood out”) (1993)

Monday, January 21st, 2008
Genres: Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Damian Chapa | Jesse Borrego | Benjamin Bratt | Enrique Castillo | Victor Rivers | Delroy Lindo | Tom Towles | Carlos Carrasco | Teddy Wilson | Raymond Cruz | Valente Rodriguez | Lanny Flaherty | Billy Bob Thornton | Geoffrey Rivas | Karmin Murcelo
Directors: Taylor Hackford
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Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the “Vatos Locos”, and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a “home” for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his “carnal”, Miklo.

Goodfellas (1990)

Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Genres: Biography | Crime | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Robert De Niro | Ray Liotta | Joe Pesci | Lorraine Bracco | Paul Sorvino | Chuck Low | Frank DiLeo | Frank Sivero | Tony Darrow | Mike Starr | Frank Vincent | Frank Adonis | Catherine Scorsese | Gina Mastrogiacomo | Suzanne Shepherd
Directors: Martin Scorsese
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This film views the mob lives of three pivotal figures in the 1960’s and 70’s New York. Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a local boy turned gangster in a neighborhood full of the roughest and toughest. Joe Pesci plays Tommy Devito, a pure bred gangster, who turns out to be Henry’s best friend. Robert De Niro plays Jimmy Conway, the man who puts the two of them together, and runs some of the biggest hijacks and burglaries the town has ever seen. After an extended jail sentence, Henry must sneak around the back of the local mob boss, Paulie Cicero, played by Paul Sorvino, to live the life of luxury he has always dreamed of. In the end, the friends end up in a hell of a jam, and must do anything they can to save each other, and stay alive.

Casino (1995)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Crime | Drama
Countries: France | USA
Actors: Robert De Niro | Sharon Stone | Joe Pesci | James Woods | Frank Vincent | Pasquale Cajano | Don Rickles | Kevin Pollak | Vinny Vella | Alan King | L. Q. Jones | Dick Smothers | Joseph Rigano | John Bloom | Melissa Prophet
Directors: Martin Scorsese
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This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas—it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970’s and ’80’s are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw—Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.

The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
Genres: Crime | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Al Pacino | Diane Keaton | Talia Shire | Andy Garcia | Eli Wallach | Joe Mantegna | George Hamilton | Bridget Fonda | Sofia Coppola | Raf Vallone | Franc D'Ambrosio | Donal Donnelly | Richard Bright
Directors: Francis Ford Coppola
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In the final instalment of the Godfather Trilogy, an aging Don Michael Corleone seeks to legitimize his crime family’s interests and remove himself from the violent underworld but is kept back by the ambitions of the young. While he attempts to link the Corleone’s finances with the Vatican, Michael must deal with the machinations of a hungrier gangster seeking to upset the existing Mafioso order and a young protoge’s love affair with his daughter.

The Godfather (1972)

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
Genres: Crime | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Marlon Brando | Al Pacino | James Caan | Richard S. Castellano | Robert Duvall | Sterling Hayden | Richard Conte | Al Lettieri | Diane Keaton | Abe Vigoda | Talia Shire | Gianni Russo | John Marley | Rudy Bond
Directors: Francis Ford Coppola
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The story begins as “Don” Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia “family”, oversees his daughter’s wedding. His beloved son Michael has just come home from the war, but does not intend to become part of his father’s business. Through Michael’s life the nature of the family business becomes clear. The business of the family is just like the head of the family, kind and benevolent to those who give respect, but given to ruthless violence whenever anything stands against the good of the family. Don Vito lives his life in the way of the old country, but times are changing and some don’t want to follow the old ways and look out for community and “family”. An up and coming rival of the Corleone family wants to start selling drugs in New York, and needs the Don’s influence to further his plan. The clash of the Don’s fading old world values and the new ways will demand a terrible price, especially from Michael, all for the sake of the family.

Heat (1995)

Monday, April 2nd, 2007
Genres: Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Al Pacino | Robert De Niro | Val Kilmer | Jon Voight | Tom Sizemore | Diane Venora | Amy Brenneman | Ashley Judd | Mykelti Williamson | Wes Studi | Ted Levine | Dennis Haysbert | William Fichtner | Natalie Portman | Tom Noonan
Directors: Michael Mann
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Hunters and their prey—Neil and his professional criminal crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup and try to put together one last big ‘retirement’ score. Neil and Vincent are similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor—’Never have anything in your life that you can’t walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner’—as he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending….

Scarface (1983)

Monday, February 12th, 2007
Genres: Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Al Pacino | Steven Bauer | Michelle Pfeiffer | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio | Robert Loggia | Miriam Colon | F. Murray Abraham | Paul Shenar | Harris Yulin | Ángel Salazar | Arnaldo Santana | Pepe Serna | Michael P. Moran | Al Israel | Dennis Holahan
Directors: Brian De Palma
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

When Castro opened the port at Mariel Harbor, thousands of Cubans fled to the United States. One is a young tough named Antonio (Tony) Montana, who, with his friend Manny Ray, starts in with Miami’s cocaine trade. He survives attack by chainsaw after a deal goes bad, and several other attempts by other dealers to eliminate him. Eventually the grandiose Montana becomes head of a cocaine cartel. But his enemies start coming after him, and his paranoia threatens to drive Montana’s empire into the ground…