Kills Me Dead

1. I have always felt that Leonardo DiCaprio was underrated as an actor, mostly because his absolutely fucking huge fangirl contingent rather overshadows his considerable talents. Obviously he’s growing out of that because he gets to work with ace directors who produce ace films from ace material (see: The Aviator), but holy crap is he on a roll. This is the best I’ve ever seen him, and that’s saying a lot because I like him in mostly anything. [Not The Beach, though, because WTF @ that movie.] The other weird thing is that never have I had a fangirlish attraction to him but now I want to have ten thousand of his babies. The “sketchy hot” look (as Audrey described it) really does wonders for those of us who have found him too pretty in the past. Running around in a hoodie, wet? My ovaries really can’t resist that, I’m sorry. And when Costello decided to re-break his fucking wrist? OH MY GOD. Ack. So much love.
2. Mark Wahlberg. OMGLKJASLK:JDL:KAJSD. Okay, we love him at our house, we really do. We love him in anything and everything. HIS HAIR IN THIS MOVIE, OMG. The lines he got. HIS BOOTIES AT THE END OF THE MOVIE.
3. Martin Sheen. When he had to break up the fight between Billy and Dignam, I pretty much died. Heh.
4. Jack Nicholson and his great big dildo scared me to death, and I had already been spoiled for that scene!
5. The scene where Sullivan calls Billy after Queenan’s murder and they both sit there absolutely silent on the phone just daring each other to blink is absolutely killer. Wow. Palpable tension! Holy fuck, that was so, so awesome. And then Billy freaking the fuck out after he hangs up, knowing he’s got to leave but trying to figure out whether or not he should call Sullivan back or if he’s waiting for Costello to call or god knows what else. OMG.
6. Madolyn was actually carrying Billy’s child, not Sullivan’s, right? Right? Tell me I’m right.
7. I love movies about the Irish mafia because they’re all Catholic and I really adore movie!Catholicism. Boondock Saints is great for that too.
8. Does Scorsese have an obsession with “Gimme Shelter” or what? Not only did he play it during the opening sequence as well as brought the intro back later on as a loop, but didn’t he use it in Casino too? I mean, it’s an awesome fucking song, no doubt, but the Rolling Stones have lots of fucking awesome songs to choose from, dude. “Let It Loose” was a nice little surprise, though, you never hear that one anywhere unless you actually put on Exile on Main Street.
9. I didn’t hate Alec Baldwin in this. His line about the Patriot Act was particularly funny.
10. For a real “guy’s guy” type movie, they certainly talked about menstruation a lot.
11. Before I completely forget: my favourite part was when that guy threw that duck toy and hit Billy in the face with it, OMG. KLAJS:DLJKASLK. The look on his face was priceless.
12. Words just cannot express how much I adored this movie. I love that Dignam referenced Shakespeare early on because basically this movie had a Shakespearean body count and as The Player says in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead says “events must play themselves out to aesthetic, moral and logical conclusion… we aim at the point where everyone who is marked for death dies.” EVERYONE DIES. [Except Mark Wahlberg, who is not marked for death ergo cannot die.] EVERYONE. ONE AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER. THEY ALL DIE. SHAKESPEAREAN IN MAGNITUDE! I just love a movie that really follows itself to the only place it can go and does it fucking well. BRAVO, MR. SCORSESE, BRAVO. You will be ignored once again come Oscar season, but don’t let that dishearten you. This isn’t a movie you can nominate for these sorts of things, although it should be. ACK, SO AWESOME.

Second Viewing

1. The music choices are weird somtimes. I like the songs picked for certain scenes, but in other places the music is edited in strangely. Right at the beginning when Costello is talking to young Colin, they play “Gimme Shelter” and then midway through switch to another song all together. Then the scene cuts to Colin leaving the restaurant, and as the cut is made “Gimme Shelter” starts up again, right at the “rape, murder” bit which is a bit… o_O to say the least. What I did love is that song playing while Billy beats the hell out of the two guys from Providence; that’s completely Goodfellas is what it is.
2. I didn’t mention it the other day, but this movie is fucking hysterical. Especially Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin. Every single thing that comes out of their mouths when they’re talking to each other is just pure comedic gold. As is everything that comes out of Alec Baldwin’s mouth when he’s talking to basically anyone in this movie. The comedy is a nice balance to all the brutal violence.
3. Billy getting hit in the face with that toy duck is still my absolute favourite part.
4. There was this one woman in the theatre that could not contain her shock in the last ten minutes when everyone started dropping like flies. The second Billy was shot all she could say was “OH… MY… GOD…” very, very slowly. Lather, rinse, and repeat every time someone else got shot subsequently.
5. What I like about Scorsese is that as gory as he is, you don’t often actually see the really, really gory stuff. Sure, we got to see Billy hit that guy in the face with the coat stand, but that didn’t do much damage. But when Queenan gets thrown off the building, you don’t see him it the pavement; it’s just so much more effective to see that disgusting blood spatter erupt all over Billy.
6. If Delahunt had lived, how exactly was he planning to square away his role in Queenan’s death, anyhow? I guess he should be lucky that he died.
7. Matt Damon was really, really good in this.The scene where he first meets Madolyn absolutely kills me. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think there’s anything I’ve seen Matt Damon in where I didn’t like his performance either.
8. You know what I like? When characters don’t enter into The Big Sex Scene™ by throwing themselves at each other. I just really like how Billy and Madolyn are in her kitchen and it’s incredibly tentative and “what the hell, I’ll go for it” before he kisses her and it just sort of disarms you. LKJA:SLDJ:LKJ:ASLDJ.
9. I love, love, love it when Billy shows up at Queenan’s house and Queenan makes him eat dinner in the kitchen with him. AWOMG.
10. This is one movie that is two-and-a-half hours hours long that doesn’t ever feel two-and-a-half hours long.
11. LEONARDO DICAPRIO, I STILL LOVE YOU LIEK WOAH. I have half a mind to go out and rent a bunch of his movies tomorrow, since I’ve now watched the only two Leo movies I own. Speaking of which, I had a dream that Blockbuster stopped doing their 3 movies for 1 week for $8.99 promotion, which I thought really sucked. Considering it’s a dream, I don’t know why I’m at all concerned.

Third Viewing

1. Have I told you lately that I love this movie? Because I love this movie. Scorprio for the win, seriously. Someone please give this movie and everyone in it hundreds of Oscars. It just doesn’t matter how many times you see it, it is still so fucking good every single time. Billy’s death? SHOCKS ME EVERY TIME. I know it’s coming, he’s in that elevator, the ride is so slow, the tension is just palpable, the doors open, he turns to step out and BANG!!! LKAJSDLKJLKAJSD. It blows my mind (his too).
2. I love Costello’s drawings. Even if I know Jack didn’t actually draw them, I love that he just sits around sketching.
3. I love the smoke rings Billy blows when he’s at the restaurant with Frank.
4. I love that Frank kills a bug and then eats it.
5. I love that guy Billy shoots in the knee who starts screaming “I’m not going into shock! Aren’t I supposed to be going into shock? This fucking hurts!” Heh. Guy watches too much TV.
6. I love the part where Billy is trying to arrest Sullivan on the roof and he pins him to the wall and hits him in the face with his elbow a million times. I think it’s because every hit punctuates one of the words he’s screaming at the time: “SHUT *elbow* THE FUCK *elbow* UP!!! *elbow*” It’s details like this that make me happy.
7. I love that when Billy sends Sullivan the CD of the recordings Costello made for the FBI, the case he sends it in is The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. I only just realised it tonight when I looked at the dude in the bottom left corner and went “Wait, that’s very familiar.”
   
   
   
   Exile on fucking Main Street!! How awesome is that. It just kills me absolutely dead. It’s such a great little detail to throw in there, because they’re listening to Exile the first time Billy meets Costello at the bar. Exile is his ticket in and Exile is his ticket out. Brilliance. So much win, Scorsese, so much win.
8. I still don’t get the cranberry juice obsession.