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"When you dance with the devil, you wait for the song to stop."
Audiences have been flocking to theaters to watch gangster movies since before the introduction of "talkies," enticed by the opportunity to be a tourist in the violent world of career criminals without any of the risk associated with the reality of the lifestyle. The genre has been dominated by the stories of desperate Italian immigrants struggling to make it in America and Italian-American mafiosos who temper their ruthlessnes with strict codes of conduct, such as in The Godfather, considered the second greatest film in American cinema by the American Film Institute.
But, the "face" of gangster movies has become less defined in the past two decades as America has become more diverse and moviegoers more accepting of foreign imports. Modern masters like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma continue to elevate the genre by perfecting it, while innovative filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and Takashi Miike have helped to broaden the genre by refusing to be slaves to gangster movie tropes. Hide your stash, check your clip, and help us choose the latest, greatest gangster movies.
Top 10 Best Gangster Movies of the Past 20 Years >>
Posted 11.08.12 by BrentJS -
36 years later, you still don't make fun of Carrie.
Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of Carrie is widely regarded as one of the classics of the horror genre, which begs the question of why anyone would want to remake it, which already happened once in a 2002 TV movie, or make a sequel out of it, which sadly happened in 1999's The Rage: Carrie 2. Next year, a second Carrie remake will open in theaters, but, as titular star Chloe Grace Moretz (Dark Shadows, Kick-Ass) revealed in April, this remake will be "very different" from the original. While it will still be ostensibly based on Stephen King's 1974 novel of the same name, the remake has been updated to modern times and, according to Moretz, will be a "darker" version that will focus more on the relationship between Carrie and her mother (Julianne Moore). From the looks of the fiery teaser trailer, however, it looks like the spine of the story will remain unchanged, with Carrie being pushed too far yet again and taking revenge on her suburban Maine town with her telekinetic powers.
trailers too hot to handleSaturdays 10:00a ET / 7:00a PT
watch the trailer >> Posted 10.17.12 by Ryan -
The first trailer for acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma's (Scarface, The Untouchables) new sexually-charged psychological thriller, Passion, has been released online. A remake of the 2010 French movie Love Crime, Passion will debut at the 69th Venice Film Festival (La Biennale di Venezia), where it will compete for the prestigious Golden Lion award.
The movie stars Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) as Christine, a ruthless business executive who enjoys using and abusing people for her own personal amusement, and Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) as Isabelle, an ambitious but naive administrative assistant who routinely suffers both professional and personal humiliations at the hands of Christine. Love, lust, sex, murder, money, manipulation...Passion has everything we've come to expect from the brilliant mind of De Palma.
watch the trailer >> Posted 08.24.12 by BrentJS -
After winning an Oscar for Black Swan and giving birth to her son, actress Natalie Portman is going back to work. She will start with two back-to-back movies with director Terrence Malick, who was recently nominated for an Oscar himself for last year's drama The Tree of Life.
According to Deadline, Portman will first appear in Knight of Cups alongside Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Isabel Lucas (Immortals). Shooting on Knight of Cups begins this summer, and then Portman will move on to Lawless alongside Bale and Blanchett again, as well as Ryan Gosling (Drive), Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon tattoo) and Haley Bennett (Marley & Me). Lawless starts production in the fall.
Statham to feel the Heat >> Posted 02.08.12 by Ryan -
Fans of the 1983 classic Scarface likely weren't too pleased to hear in September that Universal Pictures was planning a "new version" of the movie, probably in the same way fans of the 1932 version of Scarface were upset in 1983. No script was in place for the new Scarface, though, reportedly, the latest version will again follow an immigrant who comes to the United States and falls from grace during his search for the American dream.
Universal has finally settled on a screenwriter. Deadline reports that David Ayer (Training Day) has been hired to write the script which won't exactly be about an Italian immigrant named Tony who becomes a crime boss in Chicago or a Cuban immigrant named Tony who becomes a drug kingpin in Miami, but likely will be about an immigrant from somewhere named Tony. For his part, Ayer is pleased with the job, which, he admits, he "sought out".
ayer talks about his plans for Scarface >> Posted 12.01.11 by Ryan -
Progress on the the sequel to Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity took a step backward after Lionsgate yanked Saw VI director Kevin Greutert off the project by exercising a contractual option that forced Greutert to direct Saw VII instead. With both Saw VII and Paranormal Activity 2 sharing the same release date of October 22, the move was a measured uppercut to Paramount's prized Paranormal franchise, which Lionsgate blamed for Saw VI's poor box office performance.
With Greutert already working on Saw VII, Paramount is looking to counter Lionsgate by hiring a "big name" director. According to the LA Times, Paramount has narrowed its choices down to three directors: Australian director Greg McLean (whose Rogue introduced audiences to Sam Worthington), Brad Anderson (who directed the truly scary Session 9), and legendary director Brian De Palma (Carrie, Scarface). At one point, Paramount was even talking to Akiva Goldsman, the Academy-Award winning screenwriter of A Beautiful Mind, to helm the project, proving that Paramount is pushing for a more polished director for their follow-up to their low-budget original.
Whichever choice Paramount makes, it's clear that the competition over who will win the weekend of October 22 is far from over.
Posted 02.27.10 by Ryan -
It's not just that this is the year for film reboots and sequels. Empire Online is reporting that that Universal Studios will re-release five classic movies in theaters. On deck for the digital big-screen treatment are Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas (June 9), The Blues Brothers with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi (July 28), Brian De Palma's Scarface with Al Pacino (August 25), Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's The Thing (September 15), and John Landis's Animal House (November 2).
Posted 05.11.09 by reelz -
If you've watched more than two episodes of MTV's Cribs in your lifetime, then you know the Cribs cliche: While America's rappers, rockstars, and motocross champs all have 17 luxury cars in the garage, three pool tables in the master-bedroom, and a hundred bottles of Dom Perignon in the fridge, not one of them owns a book. (Please don't fact-check on this; you'll spoil the mood.) Some have bookcases, but the bookcases are filled with trophies, photos, and DVDs. And amongst the DVDs, there is always at least one copy of Scarface.
Now, however, someone has done something to address this situation: Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker has penned a book about the cultural influence of the 1983 Brian De Palma classic called "Scarface Nation: The Ultimate Gangster Movie and How it Changed America." But will this really be enough to get America's rappers, rockstars, and motocross champs to finally buy a book? Maybe, but we're guessing the odds would be better if Tucker's publisher produces a special edition that comes printed on a pool table.
Posted 11.19.08 by reelz -
Famed writer/director Brian De Palma enters the Iraq War movie ring with this weekend's Redacted, a faux documentary about a troop of very flawed US soldiers stationed at a checkpoint in Iraq.
The movie is of course stirring debate and commentary, including heated remarks by Bill O'Reilly toward the movie's producers and Keith Olberman's magnificent rebuttal.
For our part, we think having the freedom of speech is the most American thing of all, and that De Palma did a pretty good job using his in Redacted. For more information on the movie, check out our review here.
Posted 11.15.07 by reelz -
Talks for Nicolas Cage to join the cast of Brian De Palma's Untouchables prequel have fallen through.
As we previously reported, 
Cage was in negotiations to star as the young Al Capone in The Untouchables: Capone Rising. According to Variety, Cage will not be taking on the project as a result of scheduling issues.
However, 300 badass Gerard Butler has joined the cast as Jimmy Malone (the Sean Connery part). Do you think he'll show his abs?
Posted 05.25.07 by reelz