a fairly humdrum retelling of the chicago gangster war of the 20 and 30 and in particular elliot ness long term battle bring top gangster al capone to book on a range of charge from murder and prohibition and bootlegging to his eventual downfall of simple tax evasion . de palma do a pretty bad hash with this movie . firstly and he be hard push into thinking of any original cinematography he can genuinely call his own . the most blatant rip off be the odessa step scene at the train station which be originally do so masterfully decade ago in the russian film battleship potyomkin ( 1925 ) . and i doubt if the real ness swan around in designer clothes back in the 20 either . but then again this be the yuppy 80 be talk about when this film be make and so i suppose it wasn not cool to be wear anything less than a label . then we have the actor . connery really do amaze me sometimes . he play malone a bit like office dibble out of top cat and unsure of what accent to use and always come out with word of wisdom but never really convince u with any true conviction . although his death scene be quite move otherwise he be as wooden a a beer keg . costner again excels a a man with a total charisma bypass . he sparkle from time to time but generally he just plod through the story in his customary dot to dot style . the only shining light would be de nero a the big c himself . totally convincing and totally ruthless and play just right never drift into characature and never fall into cliche and de nero be excellent . and of course who can forget his little baseball story around the dinner table . the only criticism with de nero be that we do not get to see enough of him while we do not get the chance to absorb his character or understand his evil mannerism . de palma offer simple sign post tell the audience that this guy be all bad and that all you need to know . the support cast give a good account of themselves and especially garcia and martin smith . the production value be obviously high and lavish but all this eye candy and stylish camera work doesn not make for a good film with an underworked script . de palma be too heavy hand with his character development with regard the good guy hense the heavy emphasis on ness be a good family man and dot wife and child and baby on the way . all do in about 10 minute . the same with connery and simple explanation so that we can feel for this old time cop and then the scene be set to do battle with the invincible foe and who we do not get to know much about . the musical score be very upbeat and concise which be perhaps the only good thing about the movie while that and some decent lighting and 2nd unit camera work . overall and a film full of other people idea package with 80 designerism and style over content but with nothing new to offer . or .