Best movie of this year hands down!

How sad is this?

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Bugsy is directed by Barry Levinson and written by James Toback. It stars Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould and Joe Mantegna. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Allen Daviau. Film is a biography adaptation of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, a notorious American mobster who rose to prominence in the 30s and 40s.Barry Levinson's epic film didn't turn out to be the mobster film many had hoped for. There was great anticipation that this would be Levinson's Goodfellas. What ultimately came to pass was a film of epic scope and detail, alive not with violence and mobster edginess, but of romanticism, of visionary peccadilloes and of folly. This is both a blessing and a curse, for Levinson seems to be caught in two minds between being respectful to his main characterisation, or unleashing the beast as we know it.Story concerns itself with Siegel being sent to tidy up West Coast operations, from where he would fall in love with starlet Virginia Hill and become one of the most prominent names in Hollywood of the 40s. Whilst the pic has moments where Siegel seethes and teeters on the edge of murderous rage, much of the history here is scratchy to say the least, where again Levinson and Toback ignore just what a nasty piece of work Siegel was in real life, and instead put dreamy ideals and hot to trot passions in instead.It's all perfectly mounted, this is very good film making, it just always seems to be on the periphery of making a telling contribution to the Siegel legacy on film. Beatty is dandy and ever watchable, but this is not a Bugsy Siegel we can identify with, rendering an air of falseness to the story telling. The support cast are strong, though Mantegna as George Raft is miscast, but the likes of Kingsley and Gould make telling contributions with only morsels to feed off of from the screenwriter.In its longest form it runs at two and half hours, and it's testament to the film makers craft that it always maintains interest. Yet the various splinters trying to dovetail into one never quite make it and that's a shame. 6.5/10

I have to say that Barry Levinson's Bugsy made my list of my favorite mob movies because all of the acting and the violence are the total ingredients for a prefect mob movie. Warren Beatty is perfectly cast as real life mobster named Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel known for opening a hotel/casino in Las Vegas called the flamingo. The movie has great supporting work from Harvey Keitel and the great Ben Kingsley, and an excellent score from the legendary Ennio Morricone. Director Barry Levinson knows how to execute a great mob movie but can make mistakes sometimes with how he tells his actors how to act. In the movie every cast member is terrific as the character he/she plays but i have to say that the performance by Annette Bening was a little over the top when she thought that Warren Beatty's character was going out with a woman he just hired for a job at the hotel. Otherwise the movie is 100% historically accurate and the movie was a great effort to put on the big screen. But i have to say that it is still a great mob picture.

"Bugsy" is a 1991 criminal biopic that annihilated the Academy Awards by picking up an astonishing 10 nominations including picking up two wins in the process. One of those nominations was the Best Picture Win in 1991 only to lose out to "The Silence of the Lambs". Warren Beatty was also nominated for Best Actor that year and unfortunately lost out to Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lector role in "Silence of the Lambs". The movie went on to garner seven more nods and twenty lesser known nominations "Bugsy" was considered by the critics as one of the greatest film made in the 1990's. With the skillful scriptwriting by James Toback and directed by Barry Levinson, and scored by Ennio Morricone, it's apropos to the time period and shows a strong homage to the neonoir era of Los Angeles crime scene of the 1930's and 1940's.Warren Beatty literally lives out the role as Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel a famous mobster who was ruthless in every way possible and no one every dared to call him "Bugsy" to his face. The guy had the charm and the looks and the charisma to become a big Hollywood star as he took up an elegant estate in the posh area. His remorseless ways was powerful enough to bury Mussolini to the bottom of the ground or to come up with a creative plan to turn a remotely small deserted ghost town like Las Vegas and turn it into a city that eliminates out all the rules of society, but due to budget problems was where his weakness was obvious and that became his fate. His anger and violent demeanor when provoked was enough to give everyone chills.Beatty did not come into this fray in its own merits. The supporting cast also carried the film as they also succeeded in pulling their weight behind this whole ordeal. Top of the list includes Harvey Keitel as the equally intimidating mobster Mickey Cohen and Ben Kingsley as the slick but very notorious Meyer Lansky. Elliott Gould shows how he excels in character actor mode as the long-suffering Harry Greenberg who's gambling addiction has gone way over his head. Joe Mantegna was the weak link here as his role was very limited performance as George Raft who was both a movie star and a crime associate to Mr. Siegel. Babe Neuwirth shines in small role as an Italian Countess one of the many divas that Siegel had the pleasures to manipulate. The costumes were in the long run very authentic and equally fit the time period of the movie. The cinematography gives a vibrant picture of LA in its darkest of colors which includes those damp and rainy nights.But the biggest star of them all is Annette Bening who is absolutely ravishing as the leggy loose-tongued Hollywood vixen Virginia Hill as a Beatty and Bening produced the best chemistry that no other star duo was able to accomplish. Hill was known by the fans as The Flamingo because of her long legs and Siegel even named his first Vegas resort after her, The Flamingo. Of course the real magic came after the film was over as the two eventually would get married It was just so magical that it adds more texture to the story that you wouldn't imagine this match made in heaven came through a gangster movie. It will utterly leave you speechless.

I originally saw "Bugsy" in the theater, and I think I might have watched it once or twice since then. Tonight I sat down, brushed the dust off the DVD and sat down to re-visit a personal favorite of mine.I was happy to see that even after almost 20 years the film still holds up. Everything about the movie still pleases me. The passion to see his project come to life is so exciting to watch. The hardest thing to understand that it's already been 20 years since this was released.I would like to see a 20th Anniversary Blu-Ray come out in 2011, but (at least) according to Amazon there is nothing of the sort listed on the site.Oh well, the standard DVD still looks pretty good, and the extended cut gives some more emotion in the character of Bugsy. Currently I am watching the extras which I seldom do, but I do like hearing more about how this modern classic came to be. The intimate setting of the writer, director and star talking about the film is a nice touch vs. that crap they do on-set while the movie is being made. At least this was done several years later when they had time to reflect. Very pleased I pick this out of my collection and watched it again.-Mark