Scarface and King Kong

This weekend I watched 2 movies (if you haven't watched them and are worried about spoilers stop reading here):

1. Scarface - Great movie, and pretty good commentary on the DVD special features, especially the DefJam feature about Hip-hop's love for the movie. Like Rich mentioned once in his Xanga (I think), I did notice before that almost every rapper shows off their "Scarface" DVD or poster in Cribs, but didn't really understand why. Now I know.

I love movies that are full of great quotes, without necessarily trying to be. Other than the obvious "Say hello to my little friend!", some other choice gems:

"Amigo, the only thing in this world that gives orders, is balls. Balls. You got that?"

"All I have in this world is my balls, and my word, and I don't break them for no one."

"Get the yeyo"

"You know what? F--- you! How about that?"

It's kind of weird cause I think the very first Al Pacino movie I ever saw was Devil's Advocate, when I was in high school. He was alright in it, but to say the least, I don't think that was his finest work. Later on, I think the 2nd movie I saw him in was Any Given Sunday, which again, he was alright in, but not the greatest movie. For a long time I thought he was overrated and nothing special, probably because the only 2 movies I saw him in were pretty mediocre films.

Only last year did I have a chance to see him in Godfather (Parts I and II) and now Scarface. Much more representative of his legendary status as an actor. I still haven't seen a lot of his other big movies, so when I get a chance, I need to watch Dog Day Afternoon, Scent of a Woman, Heat, Godfather III, and probably a few more that I'm leaving out here.

Although I still have one question: so is Al Pacino Italian or Latino?

2. King Kong - Pretty good movie, I was impressed by how intense it was. I was expecting a mindless mix of special effects and cheesy dialogue. There was plenty of that, but it was a pretty good storyline and directed well overall. I felt bad for King Kong, I think he what he needed most was a Queen Kong.

My only complaint with the movie is that Peter Jackson needs to learn how to make a movie under 3 hours. I guess I'm getting my money's worth, but man, cut some of those scenes out!

One thing that surprised me after watching King Kong was that it was only rated PG-13. Maybe I'm just a sissy, but I was kind of disturbed in some parts of the movie. Honestly I don't get scared or disturbed easily in movies, but with the faces of those natives, the guy who got a spear through his chest, and the big insects, or slimy pink things with horns that suck your head and limbs into them, I would have guessed that the movie would be rated "R".

Especially after just reading some commentary about Scarface, and how when it came out in 1983, it was originally given an "X" rating. Ok, so King Kong didn't have characters snorting cocaine in every other scene, nearly as much profanity, or limbs being cut off by chainsaws. But I don't think Scarface was really that much more graphic or disturbing, to warrant being rated 2 levels higher.

I guess the discrepancy might be more a matter of how the country has changed in the 22 years between the release dates of the two movies. The standards by which movies are assigned ratings have probably changed quite a bit, which is to be expected I suppose.

By the way, an interesting (and highly useful) fact I learned from WikiPedia is that at the time of its release in 1983, Scarface set the record for the movie with the most uses of the "F" word. Since then, it has been passed multiple times, thanks to a few more mob movies being released, as well as people like Quentin Tarantino or the South Park creators making their respective marks on the list. For the comprehensive breakdown of the list see here (Warning: language).