What are some good Al Pacino movies, excluding The Godfather and Scarface of course?

Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon immediately spring to mind. Carlito's Way and Sea Of Love too.

Thanks. I just watched Scarecrow. it was alright, but I didn't like the ending at all.

Donnie Brasco, Glengarry Glen Ross, Cruising...

Coincidentally I’ve had a bit of Al Pacino in my life lately. Back at the start of quarantine I came across a copy of Dog Day Sunrise I had bought on DVD for $5 some time back, and for whatever reason hadn’t gotten around to watching. It’d been quite a few years since I last watched it (close to a decade maybe), but it still holds up well and I would recommend it (I think it was John Cazale’s last film as well, and what a tragically short, but all-time great run he had).

Maybe a week after that, I went back to The Godfather Part III, partly because I have seen it the least of the trilogy (understandably). I think I may have listened to a podcast about it, so I was just curious to see if I still had the same thoughts on it. I still think Pacino’s performance is one of the few redeeming factors of that film. There’s some good ideas, but between some bad casting, some unnecessary and confusing plot threads, and some of the more ridiculous scenes, it’s just a big mess that feels like was rushed through.

I also just got around to watching The Irishman on Netflix, and surprisingly the latter day ‘shouty’ Pacino was largely absent, and his performance was rather good.

I was considering revisiting Insomnia, but I recall the Swedish original with Stellan Skarsgård being superior, mainly because his character was a bit more fascinating in a non-Hollywood lead character kinda way.

Wow, so 499 is the max pages for a thread on this forum.


Oh and


This!

Good call on Donnie Brasco. I can't stand Glengarry Glen Ross and have never seen Cruising. I thought he was OK in The Recruit, too. I can't stand his current shouty shtick (he completely ruined Heat for me), though it was nice to see him hold it in for the most part in The Irishman.

Just saw Dog Day Afternoon last night. It was alright - could have done without some scenes as I felt the movie started to drag on here and there, but not bad.

I bought Klaus Kinski's autobiography by chance earlier, I anticipate ego-driven insanity in abundance.

I'd say that's interesting. Fucking nutter.

Absolutely, have you seen My Best Fiend?

By all accounts, the book is heavily fictional but I'm interested in what he had to say nonetheless. It's also a reissue, as the first edition was withdrawn and he was sued for libel (by not only Marlene Deitrich but also one of his daughters), as a result this version has a lot of the names removed.

Midsommer.

The Wicker Man is crossed with Ikea and absolutely nothing happens for the first hour, then it kind of picks up, before falling a bit flat again. Not too bad, I guess, but I've seen better.

Yet to watch that. I watched Hereditary (the director's previous film) a couple of months ago and like that, it was OK. A lot of familiar tropes thrown together with obvious jump scares and an explanation at the end that took any mystique out of it.

Naked Gun - Hadn't seen in it quite some years now. I don't find it as funny as I did in my teens, but it's still worth to revisit from time to time I suppose.

The bad casting was mostly due to bad timing. Some actors dropped out at the last minute and Coppola was forced to replace them because Paramount did not want to put the project on hold. They wanted it ready for the 1990/91 oscar season.

Of course its flaws can't solely be blamed on Paramount. Some of the writing was dodgy for sure, and Coppola was not the same director after Apocalypse Now. He experimented a lot in the 80's and early 90's, but he wasn't always successful.

SOL: Was Pacino really that shouty in Heat? I think Pacino's 'shoutiness' has been somewhat overstated. There were a few roles in the 90's where he was engaging in that to an absurd degree, like Scent of a Woman and The Devil's Advocate, but there have been several performances since that time that are not like that at all.

He is pretty shouty in Carlito's Way though, but that's one of his best performances.

Re: Glengarry Glen Ross. I rewatched that recently as I picked up the new US blu-ray. It's a great film, and Pacino's performance is underrated. I wouldn't count it among his very best performances, at least not top 5, but he is extremely good.

Yeah, I’m well aware of many of the casting what-ifs. I do also wish they’d just given Duval the big, fat cheque he was after, just to help with some more continuity and connection to the original two films. As for the writing, I like the overall arc, it’s just a bit too convoluted for my taste, which the prior films didn’t really struggle with (did Puzo contribute anything to Part III?)

^^Yeh he did, but that isn't saying much. Coppola's version of the original Godfather is far better than his junky book.

I agree about the arc. It is fine, but the plotting is a bit weak at times.

Ultimately, 1989/1990 was really too late to make a third installment. Despite its classic status and influence on the culture, The Godfather is really a generational film that appeals mostly to boomers and older Gen X's, and there was a lot of cynicism TG3.

Just the first one that came to mind, but there's plenty more. It's a cheap gimmick from a once great actor.

I haven’t read it, I only ask because for whatever reason I get the sense of a disconnect between the third and first two film - it might be nothing more than the passage of time. Still, I think I mentioned before, I still enjoy Part III, and I can see the potential, but I understand why to most people it’s simply “trash”.

Recently just been watching random stuff off Netflix after work mindlessly - Unforgiven, Passenger 57, The Last Action Hero, stuff that I haven’t seen in years that I would watch whenever it came on of a Friday or Saturday night in the time before the internet.