The Untouchables - Can't touch this

It's hard to believe that once upon a time, buying a bottle of WKD Blue from Tesco's on a Friday night could have bought you a one-way ticket to the slammer.  However, in 1930s America (aka the era of 'prohibition,' i.e. making alcohol illegal) this was basically happening.  Luckily, for us hardened drinkers good men like Al Capone ensured that we could still get drunk outside the local Weatherspoons and start a fight with someone smaller than us... or something like that. 

Actually, it wasn't quite like that.  No matter how silly banning booze may sound to us, it happened and violent gangs flouted these laws, most famously Al Capone.  That was why the city decided that a special police task force should be compiled to combat such nefarious criminal activity.  Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) was put in charge of stemming illegal liquor activity in the city of Chicago and, at the same time, bringing down the most wanted of criminals, Al Capone (a padded out Robert DeNiro). 'The Untouchables' tells the, er slightly fictionalised, story of this.

If you've ever done any research into this period of American history then you could probably make a twenty page list of the inaccuracies in this filmic interpretation of the actual events.  For example, hero and villain never really met in real life and Elliot Ness was unhappily divorced, as opposed to his ideal life we see on screen.  However, despite these sorts of points making the film more historically accurate, I'm pretty sure they would also make it a damn sight less enjoyable.  And it is very, very enjoyable.

First of all there's the cast.  Whatever you may think about Robert DeNiro's more recent output, there's no denying that in 1987 he was still at the top of his game and he gives an excellent performance as the film's antagonist - the only complaint being that he's probably not in it enough, seeing as he - like the real life Al Capone - spent most of his life hiding in one luxury dwelling to the next.  Kevin Costner was a gamble for the lead.  This was before he was Robin Hood and his Box Office draw was questionable at the time as to whether he could headline such a big budget film.  However, the film-makers made up for this by casting Sean Connery as his right-hand man (and, in doing so, helped market the film on the former Bond's inclusion).  There's a young Andy Garcia in there too, but it's DeNiro, Costner and Connery who you're going to be the most interested in.

Overall, it's a highly-entertaining gangster movie.  Yes, it probably condenses more action into the film than should probably be there, but it makes it all the more entertaining for doing so.  You probably don't have to be that into gangster/crime movies to appreciate this - definitely holds up to this day.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather