Goodfellas review: why Scorsese’s mob classic still struts
Thirty-odd years on, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas still has the sharpest suits, the best soundtrack and the scariest dinner guests in cinema. It’s on Sky and NOW, if you need an excuse.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 25 October 2026
Contents
Some films you rewatch out of duty. Goodfellas you rewatch the way you’d go back to a favourite pub: you know exactly what’s coming, you know it’ll be loud, and you know it’ll be worth it. Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster epic is one of those rare films that doesn’t seem to have aged at all. That’s quite unlike those of us who first saw it on a rented VHS with the tracking slightly off.
It has also become a sort of style bible for men who have never so much as fiddled a TV licence. The collars, the overcoats, the pinky rings, the swagger into a restaurant through the kitchen door. So it’s worth asking why a film about thoroughly awful people still looks this good.
Premiere1990-09-12
GenreDrama, Crime
CastRobert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Directed byMartin Scorsese
Running time145 min
Rated18
Watch onSky, NOW
85%
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A Brooklyn kid with ambitions
The premise is simple, and it’s true. Henry Hill is a half-Irish, half-Sicilian kid from Brooklyn who gets taken in by the neighbourhood gangsters at an early age. Then he climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway. It’s based on Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fiction book Wiseguy, and Pileggi co-wrote the script with Scorsese. The film follows Henry’s relationship with his wife Karen and his partners in crime, Jimmy and Tommy DeVito.
The first act is basically a seduction. Scorsese shows you exactly why a poor kid would want this life: the cash, the respect, the best table in the house. He makes it look so intoxicating that you almost forget to ask what it costs. I’ll leave it there. If you somehow haven’t seen it, you deserve to find out the rest for yourself.
Liotta, Pesci, De Niro and a lot of tailoring
Ray Liotta plays Henry, and it’s the performance of his career: boyish, hungry, charming and increasingly frayed. Lorraine Bracco is every bit his equal as Karen, who’s dazzled by the lifestyle and then trapped by it. Robert De Niro does what De Niro did best in that era, which is to say very little very menacingly. Paul Sorvino and Frank Sivero fill out a supporting cast that seems to have been cast straight from the back room of a social club.
Then there’s Joe Pesci. His famous funny-how routine is still one of the most uncomfortable few minutes in cinema. It works like a joke until it suddenly becomes a threat, and you never quite relax around him again.
The look of the film matters too. The suits get sharper and the shirts get louder as Henry rises, and the clothes chart the characters’ rise as clearly as any voiceover. Add the celebrated unbroken tracking shot through the back rooms of the Copacabana club and a wall-to-wall pop soundtrack, and you have a film that moves like a three-minute single for two and a half hours.
Goodfellas makes crime look like the best party in town, and then makes you stay until the lights come up.
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What works, and what doesn’t
Almost everything works. The editing has a cocky energy, the voiceover is conversational and wickedly funny, and the 145 minutes go by faster than plenty of 90-minute thrillers. Not every critic is won over, mind. Time Out’s Tom Huddleston gave it four stars out of five and wondered whether, like its characters, it “lacks heart”. It’s a fair point. Nobody here is likeable, and the film doesn’t pretend otherwise. But for me the lack of sentiment is the whole point. This isn’t The Godfather’s operatic family tragedy. It’s a story about greedy men and the wreckage they leave behind.
For British viewers it’s worth setting next to our own gangster films. Get Carter is all grey seaside towns and cold revenge, and The Krays, which came out the same year as Goodfellas, is a moody study of a myth. Scorsese’s film is hotter, faster and far funnier, which arguably makes it more disturbing.
What the critics say
Critics have been close to unanimous for three decades. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has 93 per cent from 168 reviews, and the critics’ consensus calls it “a gangster classic” and arguably the high point of Scorsese’s career. Audiences are even keener, with a 97 per cent Popcornmeter score. In New York Magazine, David Denby called it “the greatest film ever made about the sensual and monetary lure of crime”. According to IMDb, it won one Oscar and picked up 44 wins and 38 nominations in total.
Where to watch Goodfellas in the UK
Goodfellas is currently on Sky and NOW in the UK. Library films come and go on both services, so if you’ve been meaning to rewatch it, don’t leave it too long. It carries an 18 certificate, and rightly so: the violence is sudden and the language is relentless. If you’d rather own it, it’s widely available on disc. With that cinematography and soundtrack, it’s well worth seeing on the best screen and speakers you have.
Verdict
Goodfellas is still the gold standard of gangster films: thrilling, very funny, beautifully dressed and quietly horrifying. Liotta, Bracco and Pesci have never been better, and Scorsese directs as if his life depended on it. It’s essential viewing for anyone who loves crime drama. Whether it’s your first time or your fifteenth, it’s a perfectly good excuse to put on a decent shirt and stay in.
Ashley Isaacs picks what's worth your evening – film, TV, streaming, music and books for men 45 and over with limited evenings and too many subscriptions. Reviews of what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the rest, crime dramas worth a weekend, and classics worth a second look. What's worth watching, what isn't, and where to find it in the UK.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to ashley@midcent.uk.
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