Bregman, De Palma, Pacino and Stone provide a detailed timeline of how the film came about, including Lumet's involvement and the reasons for his departure. The 1080p picture here is generally fantastic, with all of Miami’s sunshine and primary colours looking superb, seeming perfectly at odds with the occasional grimness of some of the story’s events. The numbers are designated with bomb and gun graphics that stay on throughout and are animated to mark each gain. Scarface Blu-ray review One of the finest gangster movies of the past 30-odd years gets a 21st century reissue. 3 Stars. The Creating (29:35) Scarface Blu-ray Release Date September 6, 2011 (includes Scarface 1932 on DVD). Everyone smiles. It's a shot that provokes mixed emotions: there's a real sense of frustration that Manny is flirting with a girl instead providing some urgently needed intervention, but this is tempered by a small sense of relief that we've been spared the horrors of what is about to unfold only a few metres away. But for better or worse, it's also a part of who that man is, and if I were watching a film that was based on his life, I'd expect the main character to swear every bit as much as the man he was based on. Screenshots from the Brian De Palma film Scarface on 4K UHD Blu-ray. His love of wringing tension from lingering shots and mutual paranoia has never been more prevalent than it is here, and arguably has never been bettered in any of his later films. the scar-faced one, in the young angry prime of his life. Have I missed anyone? Universal's Limited Edition SteelBook Blu-ray edition of Scarface is the best way to watch the film at home. The general opinion is that Tony's downfall really begins in the emotionally painful restaurant scene, where his drunken complaints about the hollow nature of success lead to a very public split with Elvira and the above-quoted monologue to the stunned restaurant patrons. Deleted Scenes (22:29) And Montana Management, the name of the company set up by Montana for drug money laundering, was borrowed for an identically named trust fund used for financial dodgy dealing by one Saddam Hussein, whose sons Uday and Qusay were apparently big fans of the film. Yet timelessness does not lessen the irksomeness of the synth score that both manages to successfully place the film in its era and pollute the odd scene with cheesy B-moviedom or soap opera melodramatics. Scarface 4K Ultra HD Review By Allison Skornick-Rose, Oct 26, 2019 08:02 PM EST Pacino is a brilliant actor and his portrayal of a Cuban immigrant in Scarface is a perfect example of his work. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals. Posted on October 27, 2019 by Featured Thread. Blu-ray Disc and 4K UHD Blu-ray News, Reviews, Screenshots, Release Dates Scarface was always a great-looking film (De Palma's instructions to cinematographer John A. Alonzo were to give him beautiful images into which he then would put violence), something that previous DVD releases have not really showcased, so hopes were high for this Blu-ray remaster. A couple of the language substitutions are hilarious. Yet despite this, it cannot be said that the film’s messages are delivered with nuance and subtlety. It wasn't always that way. Giorgio Moroder chips in on the score, and Bauer recalls a telling comment made to him at an early screening by Martin Scorsese. Price Match Guarantee. Certain shots and the edges of others are a … Scarface: The TV Version (2:48) The decision to hire De Palma appears to have been based less on a track record of commercial hits – his previous project, the Antonioni-inspired Blow Out, had bombed at the box-office – than his oft-demonstrated ability to tell a story in very cinematic terms. This, as it happens, is a very good thing. Stone’s script also lacks the self-aggrandising controversy and stylistic excesses he can sometimes be synonymous with. The contrast is well balanced, but does get a little aggressive in darker scenes, with picture detail sometimes sucked into the black. The above-mentioned censored TV version occasionally pops up, as do sequences from the Howard Hawks version that bear a structural resemblance to their remake equivalent. It was condemned for its length (it ran for almost three hours at a time when this was not the big budget Hollywood norm) and a level of drug use and violence that was widely regarded as excessive. One of their number, small-time hoodlum Tony Montana, is processed by cynical immigration officials and shipped to a Florida holding camp known as Freedom Town, where he earns green cards for himself and his friends Manny and Angel by assassinating a former Cuban government official for wealthy drug kingpin Frank Lopez. Details include getting Tony's scar right, the synchronising of gun flashes to the camera shutter, the importance of humour, the helicopter hanging stunt, the initial bad reviews, the help the production received from the US Attorney's Office, and the battle to get an R rating. Steamy imagery is corralled by the jump to Blu-ray however, an improvement from DVD’s limited potential. Sign-up to become a member, and most of the ads you see will disappear. The World of Tony Montana (11:38) Sometime, however, they actually are. From acclaimed director Brian De Palma (Carlito's Way) and Oscar-winning writer Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July), this action-packed Blu-ray features an all-new eye-popping remastered picture, explosive 7.1 audio track and never-before-seen bonus features. The gunplay may often be exhilaratingly staged, but it's never overly glamorised and is usually brutal (the use of slow motion is reserved for a couple of dramatic key moments and is never employed to prettify the battles), a crucial tool in the pursuit of power in a game whose participants are willing to risk all. While happy to imbue the world with colour and scope, sweeping cameras and long shots are punctuated by explosions of visceral and abrupt violence. for Every Budget. The Scarface Phenomenon (38:34) It was, after all, a reworking of what is rightly regarded as a noir gangster classic, one directed by none other than Howard Hawks. Those that haven’t seen it most certainly should, yet are unlikely to be able to do so with the clean slate and lack of bias that come with having no foreknowledge of either the film itself or the reputation that precedes it. The following five features have been ported over from the 2004 2-disc Special Edition DVD release. The only problems arise in darker scenes, where a rougher, grainy effect has a tendency to creep in. The fact is that everyone who has seen Scarface already has an opinion of it which is unlikely to change. Scarfaceis both reactionary and alarmist. Behind the fogginess, exceptional gray scale with aggressive contrast. Which is a bit of a shame, as the picture-in-picture function is very well done and a useful companion to the film. The film's central character, Cuban street punk turned Miami drug lord Tony Montana, has become one of the most impersonated characters in modern film (according to De Palma, Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise both do wicked imitations), and the line "Say hello to my little friend!" In that respect it may well have helped that screenwriter Oliver Stone – yes, that Oliver Stone – wasn't a fan of the earlier film, and thus approached this version as an original work rather than a reverential update. Scarface’s fans and detractors are already firmly entrenched in their respective camps. Specific sequences build the tension to an almost unbearable pitch and then kick like a cannon. I… English for the deaf and hearing impaired. Can there be a remake anywhere in film history that has had the international cultural impact of Scarface? Here is a review of the Scarface Blu-ray. Home . Key elements have been adapted from Hawks' original, but in other respects the two are very different films. At this very moment there are a group of builders working next door to my house, and their foreman must use the word "fuck" somewhere between five and twenty times a minute, sometimes more, all at a volume that could be heard from space. French, Spanish and English SDH subtitles are also provided. This 4K UHD Blu-ray puts those past releases to shame! Arguably, too aggressive at times, clipping parts of the screen. And that's just a sample. Blu-ray Release Date: September 6th, 2011 Steel Blu-ray case inside cardboard slipcase. For this reviewer, the latter applies. But special mention must go to Cuban-American newcomer Steven Bauer, who as Tony's best friend Manny always holds his own in Pacino's presence, and provides us with a genuinely likeable guy to root for when things takes a later downward turn. Stone admits to being first drawn to the project by Lumet's presence and disappointed by his departure, and despite his ambition was not yet experienced enough as a director to be allowed to helm a production of this scale. There's some interesting stuff here, most of which has been drawn directly from Stone's script. The transfer has a few problems but is generally strong, and the film's 7.1 lossless soundtrack is reference quality. Chapters 35 ... Scarface Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-Ray Review. The Best PSUs for PC Gaming From be quiet! The botched nightclub assassination attempt is a memorable example, where a kinetic blend of gunfire, crowd panic, bullet hits, locked-on-character camerawork, and the single-note drones of Giorgio Moroder's score makes the scene feel almost as apocalyptic as the climax of Carrie. As Oliver Stone states on this very disc, "Luxury corrupts far more ruthlessly than war," a concept he explores in the film's underlying criticism of unprincipled materialism and the dark side of the American Dream, which feels as relevant now as it did at the dawn of the decade in which greed ran rife. There are times when the camera feels caught in Tony's magnetic aura and propelled by his energy, seeking him out and prowling around him, a faithful companion that dogs his every move. The second disc is a DVD-5 of the original Howard Hawks film while the first is a Region Free, BD50 with Brian De Palma's remake and special features. Whether through dialogue as quotable now as it was in 1983, or with poster prints continuing to adorn the walls of students and ostentatious MTV Cribs celebs, few films achieve such timelessness, and those that do become true pop-culture icons. Over a hundred minutes of standard-definition featurettes are carried over from the DVD version, including the expected making of, which covers the genesis of the film, the casting process, and also a rather irrelevant and superfluous section about the making of the videogame. It's also a near perfect embodiment of the character as written. It's certainly fair to say that if you're not fond of swearing and prefer your violence to take place tastefully off screen, then you're going to have a problem with this particular movie. Price Match Guarantee. Some think it to be overblown pomp – as irredeemably and loudly extroverted as the cocaine lifestyle it joyously and ruthlessly depicts. Then comes Tony Montana (Al Pacino). There are several set in Freedom Town, including a very long and logistically complex mobile shot that leads Tony, Manny and Angel through busy crowds and ends on Tony walking away and singing. Watching him again I was reminded of Nick James' review in Sight & Sound of the film adaptation of David Mamet's American Buffalo, where the key role of Teach is played by Dustin Hoffman, a part that had been played by Pacino on stage. OFFICE - PROCESSING HALL - AFTERNOON - A FULL CLOSEUP OF TONY MONTANA. When it opened back in 1983, it did so to mixed and sometimes hostile reviews. And be our Facebook chum here. Scenes have been parodied in both The Simpsons and South Park, and the film even gave birth to two video games, Scarface: The World is Yours and Scarface: Money. Much of this has been drawn from the accompanying featurettes, but it also includes material that was doubtless shot for inclusion but was lost from the final cut, including an emotional response from Steven Bauer to the hostile critical reaction, Stone condemning the American incarceration of drug users as fascist, and Keith Gordon talking about the innovative nature of some the camera moves. Scarface Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-Ray Review. I will also let you know about the extras None of the censored material contained on-screen violence, and the cuts thus appear to be more of a reaction to the intensity of the sequence than anything you see. When activated, it intermittently throws up a window on the bottom right that plays content relevant to the scene in question, the gaps between which are pleasingly shot. This review will reflect Scarface‘s Dolby Atmos track. The density of incident and character detail, coupled with a pace that never drops and intermittently kicks into hyperdrive, make the film's near 3-hour running times disappear in a blink. It keeps count of the dropping of "F-bombs" and the bullets fired. Pacino may dominate but he never eclipses the consistently excellent work of a dynamite supporting cast, whose key players include Robert Loggia as Frank Lopez, a pre-Amadeus F. Murray Abraham as his shifty sidekick Omar, David Owen lookalike Paul Shenar as Bolivian drug lord Sosa, and newcomers Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michelle Pfeifer as Gina and the coldly statuesque Elvira (just watch Pfeifer in the aforementioned final shot of the success montage). It was James' assertion, one I have to agree with, that the talented Hoffman was miscast here, because "unlike the growling and prowling Pacino, Hoffman cannot carry off a sense of physical threat." F-Word Trailer for Scarface. At the time of writing it is #147 on the IMDb's Top 250 with a user rating of 8.2/10, and has an 88% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. How much of this is down to the original film is hard to say – the light level in the sequence where Manny drives Gina home is so low that it's almost reduced to two faces floating in the dark, but that's exactly how it appears on the previous DVD, which in spite of everything, this is still vastly superior to. Release Calendar DVD & Blu-ray Releases Top Rated Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Showtimes & Tickets In Theaters Coming Soon Coming Soon Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. That the film is so engrained with the trappings of its decade only serves to add further to its appeal; the more distant the repellant Hawaiian shirts, huge cigars and synth pop of 1983 become, the more timeless the film seems. There is a … Definitely. Assembled in the manner of an MTV special, with enough graphical game-playing to try the patience of even the more tolerant cineaste, this featurette may be the most visually annoying thing on the disc, but it does have some interesting testimony on the accuracy of the film's depiction of the 80s Miami drug scene from real life Drug Enforcement Agency officers, plus some stating the bleeding obvious from two other dudes of questionable relevance. • The Making of Scarface: The Video Game (12:05) • Scarface: The TV Version (2:48 in 480i) • BD-Live • My Scene • Pocket BLU • U-Hear •D-BOX . The results are impressive, but not spectacular, with a marked increase in detail and sometimes eye-popping colours … At the forefront of it all is Pacino, filling every frame with a performance of barbed humour and affable wit, just beneath the surface of which is a switch that is always a hair’s width away from being flipped. The Making of Scarface: The Video Game (12:05)