George Clooney was reportedly paid $3 for writing, starring in, and directing “Good Night, and Good Luck.” With the profit percentage he has in the film, though, Clooney is probably going to do just fine for all his hard work and effort. However, his stand on bringing the story to the screen is indicative of the story behind the film. More than that, it eerily echoes some of the politicking concerns that have gone on through this country again since the September 11 terrorist attack. In the 1950s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the first Irish Catholics to succeed in politics as a Republican. In ten years of service, he became known for his witch hunts and blank check accusation of citizens, public figures, and government and military employees of being Communists. During the heyday of the Cold War (the extreme hostility between Russia and the United States following World ...

  Francis Ford Coppola gave moviegoers the story of royalty in the Mafia in his legendary “The Godfather” and its sequels, but Martin Scorsese delivers the goods on the blue collar working stiff in organized crime that had to deal with “made” men. Based on the non-fiction book by Nicholas Pileggi about the life and times of Henry Hill, a half-Italian, half-Irish hood who spent nearly thirty years as a wiseguy, the movie explodes with raw emotion and violence. The stellar cast provides flesh and blood to the gritty story, adding depth and layers, re-creating the real people that lived through those turbulent episodes. Although the disc is billed as an HD DVD, “GoodFellas” suffers from a noticeable lack of digital quality. The images are not much more than two-dimensional and tend to have softness around the edges. Near the beginning of the film, the colors don’t seem as vibrant and look washed out. For ...