The Untouchables (1987)
A middling experience with many things done reasonably well but not much extraordinary. The story is very straight forward good versus evil, which isn’t overly interesting on its own, but is held together by the whole 30s old-school cool vibe. Long coats, stylish hats, classic Ford models and tommy guns. Connery and Drago are great, the rest of the cast is serviceable. My main problem with it is that while some individual scenes are really great, it doesn’t all come together as a complete narrative. I didn’t feel we ever really got to connect with Ness’ need for justice. The movies also tries to add a few moments showing Ness being hesitant of killing someone, but even a cool Morricone score and the use of some Leone style closeup shots isn’t enough to make those scenes memorable or convincing. All in all it is a fine period piece gangster drama, that may be entertaining and with some very well done scenes but doesn’t reach any interesting depths in terms of exploring the prohibition period in general or getting close to either Capone or the law enforcement.
Rating: 3.5