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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Scarface (1983)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

The World Is Yours

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Scarface on DVD

Painted in exuberant, extravagant swaths of red, Brian De Palma's foolhardy epic is a thing of delirious grandeur; only the combination of De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone could have conceived and executed it. Their oversized vision perfectly matches the hubris of lead character Tony Montana (a ferocious Al Pacino), a Cuban gangster who takes Miami by storm with a cloud of testosterone, cocaine and mists of blood. Michelle Pfeiffer plays his object of desire, more possessed than loved, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays Tony's sister, and his downfall (he can't stand to see her as a sexual being, attracted to other men). Unbelievably violent and borderline offensive, Scarface has become one of the ultimate "guy" movies as well as a quotable classic among the hip-hop community. It's available in either a 2-disc set or a deluxe "gift" set ($59.98) that also includes Howard Hawks' 1932 original.

Starring: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia, Miriam Colon, F. Murray Abraham, Paul Shenar, Harris Yulin, Angel Salazar, Arnaldo Santana, Pepe Serna, Michael P. Moran, Al Israel, Dennis Holahan, Richard Belzer
Written by: Oliver Stone
Directed by: Brian De Palma
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 170 minutes
Date: August 24, 2006