Untouchables, the

This film marks several remarkable firsts: The first true representation of a David Mamet film script (although "The Verdict" in 1980 came first), the leading-man status of Kevin Costner (deservedly so, since despite disasters like "The Postman" and "3000 Miles to Graceland", he's a very good actor with a very impressive resume and an Oscar to boot), Sean Connery's first Oscar win, also very much deserved, and most importantly, the first good film from Brian De Palma. People call films like "Body Double", "Carrie", "Blow Out" and "Dressed to Kill" classics... why they do, I have nary a clue. Those are some of the worst rip-off films in history. His "Hitchcockian" feeling is, to me, straight-up plagarism. He rips off plots and shots that are embarassing mish-moshes of Hitch's best (and worst) stuff. And did you see "Mission to Mars"? I didn't think so. And the only people that I can imagine that liked "Femme Fatale" were fans of the bathroom sequence (If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about). The only other film of his that was worth watching was "Mission: Impossible". But "The Untouchables" is a real work of art. I won't go into plot points, but I'll comment on the film's great points: 1) The dialogue is sparkling. Mamet makes these people real as opposed to just making them standard action caricatures (the young idealist, the grizzled old wise-man, the cocky rookie, and the dorky fifth-wheel). 2) The performances are top-notch. Costner, Connery, Martin Smith, Garcia, De Niro, and an underrated performance from Richard Bradford as Chief Dorsett really help to pull this film off. They give it all they got. They make the tragedy and drama and excitement and horror and triumpth of this film work. 3) The visuals are stunning. Stephen Burum really makes that camera work, especially with those beautiful shots of LaSalle Street. This film is a great revisionist telling of the Eliot Ness vs. Al Capone brawl. The film obviously takess a lot of liberties with history, but they really work, especially with the dispatching of one particularly bad man which in my opinion makes for the MOST satisfying film death EVER. It really makes you happy to watch this guy bite it ("Did he sound anything like THAT?!?"). This is a great film and I could not recommend it more highly. But go ahead and skip the rest of De Palma's 'classics'.

I watched this when it came out decades ago and loved it then. I figured it was time to show it to my son, and he thoroughly enjoyed it too. Classic movie, the additional features were disappointing but then we just wanted to watch the movie...

A superb cast of highly talented and big stars of Hollywood! I couldn't believe that a director like Brian de Palma would have an ensemble of actors of fine performances...Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, and yes, even Robert De Niro. It's an all-star cast in a movie full of adventure and crime-wreckening investigations! What more can you ask? I definitely commend the director for a breath-taking scene to which Agent Ness fiercely show a gun-fight scene to Al Capone's boys. Sean Connery is truly deserved to be awarded of Academy Best Supporting Actor, he played Jim Mallone...who was responsible in forming the The Untouchables...too bad, he has to die in the movie.

How I wish that The Untouchables did not dissolved so fast (because members were killed by Capone's boys) so that they will came up a face to face battle with Al Capone's gangster. Though it is sufficient that De Palma showed a fight scene somewhere at the bridge but it is better if he has another fight scene at the climax of the film but he did not.

This is a good introduction film for those people who want to know the nature of gangster and somehow, know Al Capone better. To be honest, I don't like gangster movie at first, but when I watched this film...oh boy...it is one hell of a ride! Maybe I should also watch The Godfather...don't you think?