Donnie Brasco is overrated tripe. I've tried to watch it 3 or 4 times in my life and have wound up finding better shit to do and never finishing it. That includes turning it off at least once and turning the tv over to a Chopped or something else like it.
The Untouchables gets knocked because it's not off-broadway enough for a lot of you guys who fancy yourselves as enlightened movie critics. Capone beats the literal brains out of a guy with a baseball bat. Ness throws Frank Nitty off of a fucking building to his death (I know this factually didn't occur, but it's a satisfying ending). It's set in Chicago at Capone's height.
There are several iconic movie scenes and lines with great fucking actors in them - the blood oath scene with Costner and Connery; the mounty border raid "The surprise is half the battle." "Many things are half the battle, losing is half the battle. Let's think about what's the whole battle."; Ness confronting Capone in his hotel; and of course the train station with the stairs, the shootout, the stroller - "You got him?" "Yeah, I got 'em." .... "Take 'em." bang!
It's a movie about Al fucking Capone and Elliott Ness, was written by David Mamet, directed by Brian De Palma, and Connery won the academy award for Best Supporting Actor. It is about as gangster as a movie can get and it was really well done.
I don't expect it to be in many gangster top 5's, but deriding it is silly.
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Also, for everyone who obsesses about Goodfellas being at the top of the heap, I don't even think that's Ray Liotta's best gangster movie.
Copland is one of the most underrated movies of all time. The cops were the gangsters, Harvey Keitel was terrific, a coked out Liotta was fantastic and Stallone was actually really good as the buffoonish foil to Keitel's menacing mob of miscreants. Oh, and DeNiro had an amazing scene while literally eating a sandwich and going on a tirade with his mouth full.