Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. 100
    Scarface is one of those special movies, like "The Godfather," that is willing to take a flawed, evil man and allow him to be human.
  2. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    A beautiful, at times poetic exercise in excess from Brian De Palma.
  3. Reviewed by: Andy Gill
    100
    Perfomances are excellent, and despite its moralistic conclusion, the film has since become de rigueur viewing for crack barons, who know a good shoot-em-up when they see one.
  4. Scarface is the most stylish and provocative - and maybe the most vicious - serious film about the American underworld since Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather."
  5. Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    80
    It is a serious, often hilarious peek under the rock where nightmares strut in $800 suits and Armageddon lies around the next twist of treason.
  6. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    80
    Scarface is a grandiose modern morality play, excessive, broad and operatic at times.
  7. Scarface is a B- movie with singularly silly psychological pretensions: its neo-primitivism is to the complex moral cosmos of Francis Coppola's "Godfather" saga as Disney is to Dickens. [09 Dec 1983]
  8. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    25
    It plays like a crude "Godfather" parody, the sort that might amuse as a 10-minute sketch on "Saturday Night Live," but curdles and collapses as a 143-minute film. [09 Dec 1983]
  9. 20
    Brian De Palma dedicates this 1983 feature to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, authors of the 1932 original, though I doubt they would find much honor in his gory inflation of their crisp, 90-minute comic nightmare into a klumbering, self-important, arrhythmic downer of nearly three hours.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 93 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 24
  2. Negative: 4 out of 24
  1. I'm insanely in love withe this movie. I will say no more.. watch it. Whether you are shocked or dismayed and digusted.... well, it's awesome either way. I'm an adult, and was one at 18 when I first saw and loved it. We each have our own opinions. GAWD I LUV THIS MOVIE! Full Review »
  2. Korin
    10
    Scarface was a good movie to watch, I watched it like 2 times after the first time I saw it, that's how good it was to me. I think I might watch it again, since it's such a great movie. Full Review »
  3. Nothing more that mountains of cocaine, and never-ending violence. Scarface has absolutely no storyline. It is true that hollywood only makes movies with action, that have absolutely no meaning these days. Full Review »