untouchables Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Scenes We Love: The Untouchables
Filed under: Fandom », Scenes We Love »
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It's no secret Robert De Niro has fallen on hard times in recent years, especially insofar as "hard times" are defined as "choosing to appear in terrible movies almost exclusively." But he's played several iconic characters in the past, including Al Capone in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables.
This film has many famous scenes. Here's one of my favorites, in which Capone has a friendly meeting with his associates, discusses his love of baseball, and then hits a line drive up the middle. His speech leading up to it is great ("Enthusiasms... enthusiasms... enthusiasms"), and the tension is unbearable -- especially if, say, you first watched this movie years ago and know how the scene will end but don't remember exactly when it's going to happen.
The scene is based on a legend about Al Capone that may or may not be true. Albert Anselmi, John Scalise, and Joseph Giunta were found dead in May 1929, all of them shot and horrifically beaten. Years later, the story would emerge that they'd been lured to a dinner by Capone (they were all associates of his), who had turned on them with a baseball bat before other Capone henchmen stepped in to finish the job. I don't know if it's true, but I like to think it is.
By the way, while the violence here isn't as explicit as I remembered it, it's still pretty harsh. It might be considered "not safe for work" if you work in a place where the bludgeoning of ineffective team members is frowned upon.
We Need a New Capone: Nicolas Cage Bails on 'Untouchables' Prequel
Filed under: Action », Drama », Paramount », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
Frankly I don't even know if this is good news or bad news: Nicolas Cage has decided to bail on the Untouchables prequel that Paramount and producer Art Linson are planning to put together. The original plan was for Cage to play a "young" Al Capone, but Variety indicates that "scheduling issues" will now prevent that from happening. (The paper also says that Cage's next movie is unknown, so I guess we know what "scheduling issues" actually means.) One piece of good news is that Gerard Butler has been cast as the "young" Jimmy Malone -- the character played by Sean Connery in Brian De Palma's 1987 near-masterpiece.Or perhaps it's just that Nicolas Cage feels like giving us a break from his face for a few months. Nothing against the Oscar-winning actor (indeed, I'm a big fan of the guy), but he's already got National Treasure 2 coming in December, and the last few years have been littered with titles like Next and Ghost Rider and The Wicker Man and World Trade Center and Lord of War and The Weather Man. Heck, half of 'em are damn good movies, but there is such a thing as massive over-exposure. Or hell, maybe Nick's just trying to be the next Michael Caine.
In related near-news, it looks like Brian De Palma is in talks to direct The Untouchables: Capone Rising, but I'm not sure if he's signed the deal just yet. It'd be pretty cool if he did. Here's hoping they can wring a fresh screenplay out of David Mamet. THEN I'd be really excited for this movie. Actually the screenplay seems to come from David Rabe and the team of Koppelman and Levien. Not bad, not bad. But the question of the day, of course, is this: Who would YOU cast as a prequel-style Al Capone? (My vote is for Timothy Olyphant.)
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