One fine little character study about crime, friendship and loyalty in gangland New York City.
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01/01/00
Donnie Brasco (1997)
87
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:52
Fresh:45
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.8/10
Consensus: A stark, nuanced portrait of life in organized crime, bolstered by strong performances from Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.
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Reviews for Donnie Brasco
Donnie Brasco is a fine movie but it might just be best remembered as Johnny Depp's coming-out party. A star -- check that, an actor -- is born.
01/08/05
At 34, Depp has finally scored a film that doesn't ask him to play down his intelligence.
01/01/00
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01/01/00
It's hard to develop any sympathy for the film's nasty manipulative humans, despite the best efforts of all involved in this newest slant on the mean-streets crowd.
06/05/02
It's tempting to think Pacino stopped trying sometime in the mid-1980s. But watch Lefty's elegiac final scene and you might conclude that it's not Al's ability that's dimmed, rather it's the imagination of casting directors that's grown stale.
06/20/09
The movie has many human qualities and contains what will be remembered as one of Pacino's finest scenes.
01/01/00
Top CriticIn almost every respect, Donnie Brasco is an original, the unexpected rebirth of an old and oft-told tale.
10/15/02
Two powerful performances and a glimpse at the inner workings of the lower levels of the mob make this a must see.
01/01/00
The performances are terrific, especially Pacino. But when has he not been? But here he's even better than usual, even showing a vulnerable side that is almost heartbreaking.
01/01/00
You get something far richer, if more unsettling, here than conventional crime drama's romanticism and easy analogies.
01/01/00
Top Critic[Pacino's] turn as a low-level mobster is his most relaxed and charming work in years.
01/01/00
[Newell and Attanasio] pay as much attention to emotional details as to the clockwork details of mob life.
07/30/07
Pacino's outstanding work elevates this to the crime movie pantheon.
01/01/00
The humor and tragedy that Pacino and Depp put on the screen will stay with you.
04/17/02
A pleasant surprise.
01/01/00
Tarnishes the shiny veneer of the mob we've seen in earlier movies, holding up its players not as criminal heroes but as cogs in a criminal machine, more worthy of compassion than cheers.
01/01/00
Just misses ranking in the upper echelon of mob movies.
05/09/07
In the tired figure of Lefty, manifest in the craggy icon of Pacino, our sympathies are definitely enlisted, and the theme rings a poignant note.
04/12/02
Depp is as good as I've seen him, and Pacino is simply astonishing.
01/01/00
Top CriticLatest News for Donnie Brasco
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