The Pesci characters obviously have more similarities, but there are significant differences, too. The Robert DeNiro character is nothing like Henry Hill from Goodfellas, nor is the character much like DeNiro's Jimmy from Goodfellas. It felt like a rehash because it came out so soon after Goodfellas and because Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci played large roles in both films.
It's *not* a re-hash of Goodfellas, IMO, but a film that has some obvious parallels to Goodfellas. While I do think that there is too much Sharon Stone, and that there are ways that it could have been better, watching it in the mid-2000s after not having seen it since it came out, I found it much easier to appreciate. First time I saw it I thought it was an overdone attempt to cash in on Goodfellas.
