Goodfellas (1990)

Here’s the trap: for its first hour, Goodfellas makes being a crook look like the best party in New York, and plenty of people never notice the door locking behind them. Ray Liotta’s narration sells the dream, with front-row tables, no lines anywhere, and that famous unbroken walk through the Copacabana kitchen. Then the movie hands him the bill. Joe Pesci turns every dinner joke into a coin flip over whether somebody gets hurt. Robert De Niro does more with one long stare at a bar than most actors do with pages of dialogue. The weak spot is Karen, who gets her own narration and then fades out right when her side gets interesting. The final act, one long paranoid day of errands and helicopters, is brilliant and also exhausting. It made just $47.3 million worldwide, which feels like a typo for a movie people quote daily. A 9.5 because nobody has made crime look this exciting and this empty in the same breath. $2,201 says you narrate your next grocery run in Ray Liotta’s voice.

What works: The narration, the restless camera, and Pesci, Liotta and De Niro at full power in a story that moves like a speeding car.

What doesn’t: Karen’s half of the story fades out too early, and the frantic final stretch can feel more exhausting than thrilling.

Who it’s for: Grown-up crime movie fans who like their gangster stories fast, funny and full of consequences.