Cape Fear Scared the Crap Out of Me

Cape Fear is a Martin Scorcese film starring Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis. Normally, movies like these are what I like to call "Jim movies". What is a "Jim movie", you ask?
"Jim movies" consist of either having a starring role featuring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, or some sort of combination. They are either directed by Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, or Martin Scorcese, and they usually are critically acclaimed and/or Academy Award winning movies. Jim's taste in the arts is somewhat refined and generally well-accepted by most. My taste in movies is somewhat more obscure and I usually tend to gravitate towards what the norm would consider "garbage movies".

So when Jim suggested Cape Fear to me, not as a horror movie, but as a Martin Scorcese movie starring Robert De Niro, I figured it was going to be another Godfather or Goodfellas or Raging Bull, and I was going to end up sitting at the computer trying to google scary things for MB Blog or something.

But then he promised me that it would be scary. And boy oh boy, he delivered.

Basically, Cape Fear is from 1991 (it's a remake from the 1962 version starring Gregory Peck...who is ALSO in the 1991 version, fyi) and it took me almost 20 years to see it. But who cares how I got here, I'm here now, right?

The plot is about Robert De Niro being a convicted rapist and batterer who gets 14 years in prison. He gets out seeking vengeance on Nick Nolte, who was his defense attorney who apparently withheld evidence that could have cleared De Niro, because he felt that De Niro deserved his sentence. De Niro's character learns to read in jail and he becomes very familiar with the law. Well, madness ensues, and DeNiro chews a woman's face off and goes after Nolte's family.

Robert De Niro scared the crap out of me. I believed him! First of all, he's RIPPED in this movie:



Would you look at the ink on this guy?

But then he's also kind of amusing, because he says funny things and dresses like a funny sailor:


Nick Nolte tries so hard to get rid of him, even resorting to hiring hit men to do away with him...but he always comes back:




DeNiro continues to terrorize the family...especially the teenage daughter (played by Juliette Lewis) which include a super uncomfortable scene on the phone and on a stage...then he goes after Jessica Lange's character.
Eventually, the family flees for a houseboat to make an escape...and of course...DeNiro terrorizes them there too...It gets pretty wild on that boat:


Really wild...


Here's one of my fave scenes toward the end where Robert DeNiro is actually likeable in a weird way:

"Are you offering me something hot?" is the greatest.

I won't tell you the ending because it's over-the-top....literally....

I realized while writing this that I'm a big jerk, because I won't try and "spoil" the ending for you of a movie that came out in 1991, yet I'll give you then entire rundown of a movie that came out last week...figure that one out.

Anyway, take it from me...this movie is great. Go see it, counselor.