The LA Times last week ran an article on the old Al Pacino movie "Scarface" because there's a new print of it in theatres right now, but I couldn't read it because the darn LA Times is now charging about $40 a year to read their Calendar Live articles. I love the LA Times, but I don't know if I love them enough to pay $40 a year to read one of their sections.

I'd never seen "Scarface", so I went out and rented the movie. It was a great movie, and definitely a classic.

Now the NY Times also followed suit and wrote an article about "Scarface", 'Scarface,' a Foul Mouth With a Following. The article says it's now an underground classic among hip-hop fans and how college students are throwing "Scarface" parties.

Brian De Palma directed the movie, and Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay. Al Pacino has a really bad cuban accent, but his performance is so over top and great, that it makes up for the fact that his accent is more italian than cuban.

A DVD is being released by Universal which will include prominent rappers talking about how influential "Scarface" is to them. P. Diddy says he saw the movie 63 times.

I really loved the movie up until the very end, when the Tony Montana character started to just make me mad. The end of "Scarface" reminded me of an F. Scott Fitgerald novel I hated so much because of the ending that I've blocked memories of the novel from my mind. I hated that Fitgerald novel so much, the experience made me think Fitzgerald only wrote great short stories and wrote awful novels.

I really should reread that Fitgerald novel again, if I can remember which one it was, just to see if it makes me crazy again. I read the novel sometime during college, and my values were definitely different then.

If you haven't seen "Scarface", or it's been awhile, watch it again because it really is a great movie classic and showcases a young Pacino at this best.