40/40 Day 16 Report

What did we learn tonight? That there's never one last score, after which you can successfully retire to a remote island to live happily ever after with the love of your life.

In Carlito's Way, Al Pacino gives his finest performance of the latter half of his career, and one  not overshadowed by his screaming his lines. Brilliantly directed by Brian DePalma, with a riveting final act that deftly goes from a nightclub to a subway train and ultimately Grand Central Station without giving the viewer a chance to stop and catch their breath. Almost everything in the film works for me, including a variety of 70s disco tunes that I (much to Vonna's chagrin) still refer to as the soundtrack to Carlito's Way.

With Heat, Michael Mann reinvents a story told previously for television (as L.A. Takedown - readily available in the UK but conspicuously absent on home video domestically). Of course the budget of film allowed him to populate it with marquee stars (aside from Pacino and DeNiro, you get Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Piven, Dennis Haysbert and an even younger Natalie Portman) and improve the production values significantly. I would guess the downtown L.A. shootout budget exceeded that of the TV movie (the ammunition budget may have even exceeded that!). Even with Pacino's acting in overdrive, the long awaited onscreen pairing of two of cinemas heavyweights was worth the wait.

 

On Deck: Dare I say what might possibly be the funniest night of the lineup: Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind.

40 Years/40 Movies Series Tally:
Days Completed: 16

Movies Watched: 24

Number of unique attendees: 18
Total Attendance (cumulative number of attendees for all movies): 122