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534 reviews in total

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329 out of 413 people found the following review useful:
To call it a sequel is a travesty, 9 May 2001

Author: taimur74

This movie is way to be good to be labelled a sequel to The Godfather . Rather it is more of a companion piece to the original and the two perfectly compliment each other . IT is both a sequel and prequel showing the rise of the young vito and moral decline of Micheal . Both characters are brought to life with uncanny ability by Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino . To say that these two are good actors is like saying that a nuclear bomb makes a loud noise and in this movie they prove why they are at the top of their respective crafts .

Al Pacino is the standout in the ensemble cast and its amazing how his eyes have changed from the first part . They are now cold , ruthless and unemotional and betray the price which Micheal Corleone has paid for power .

Watch this movie and learn why it is the greatest gangster film of all time.

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233 out of 300 people found the following review useful:
The Greatest Film Ever Made, 7 May 1999

Author: DanB-4 from Canada

The original Godfather is a brilliant work. It is in a sense a voyeuristic delight, allowing us to see the mafia from the inside - we become part of the family. It single-handedly change the world's view of organized crime, and created a cast of sympathetic characters, none of whom have a shred of common morality. It was the highest grossing movie of its time and Brando created a cultural icon whose influence resonates as strong today as it did in 1972.

As extraordinary an achievement as this is, Part II is even better. It easily receives my nod as the best picture ever made. I have seen it at least 20 times, and each time its 200 minutes fly by.

The movie uses flashbacks to brilliantly weave two tales. The main story is the reign of Michael Corleone as the world's most powerful criminal. Now reaping the benefits of legalized gambling in Las Vegas, Michael is an evident billionaire with an iron fist on a world of treachery.

Behind this, Director Francis Ford Coppola spins the tale of the rise of Michael's father, Vito, to the center of the New York mafia. It is these scenes that make the film a work of art. Without spoiling, I will simply say the Robert DeNiro as the young Vito is the best acting performance of all time, a role for which he won a richly deserved Oscar.

The screenplay is full of delicious little underworld nuggets ("Keep your friends close .....", "I don't want to kill everyone, just my enemies"), while it blows a dense, twisted plot past you at a dizzying and merciless pace. The cinematography is depressing and atmospheric. The score continues in the eerie role of its predecessor, foretelling death and evil.

All of this makes the movie great and infinitely watchable. But it's what's deeper inside this film ... what it is really about ... that is its true genius.

The Godfather Part II is not really a movie about the mafia, it is a movie about a man's life long struggle. Michael controls a vast empire that is constantly slipping out of his hands. He grows increasingly distrustful and paranoid, and even shows signs that he hates his own life. Michael almost seems to resent the fact that he is a natural born crime lord, a man who puts the family business ahead of everything.

The great Don Michael Corleone can never come to terms with one simple fact.... his father's empire was built on love and respect, Michael's empire is built on fear and violent treachery.

See this movie. It's three-and-a-half hours very well spent.

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159 out of 208 people found the following review useful:
One of the Best Sequels Ever, 2 August 2004

Author: ve3idl from Canada, ontario

You can count on one hand the movie sequels that measure up to the original; GODFATHER II makes the cut. This movie is just as fine as GODFATHER I. Here the director goes back and forth between the early days of the young Vito Corleone, played by Robert De Niro, and the family after the action in GODFATHER I in the 1950's just before Castro came to power. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) has moved the family and most of his business to Nevada. Once again the acting is flawless. Diane Keaton as Michael's wife who quickly becomes disillusioned with her life with him and the lies he continues to tell her, assuring her that he is going legitimate soon; Robert Duvall as Michael's adopted brother and adviser; and Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth all give outstanding performances; but the film really is Al Pacino's. We see him become a ruthless, cold-blooded killer who alienates himself from his family in ways his father would never have done. He has come so far from the idealistic young man in "GODFATHER I, who joined the Marines in World War I to serve his country and die for it if necessary, to a lonely, paranoid tragic man. There are many poignant scenes concerning his wife and children-- the drawing his son leaves for him in his bedroom, the gift that Tom buys the child because Michael is too busy, his wife Kay's being kept a virtual prisoner at his orders in the family compound, etc.

Once again many acts of violence are interwoven with religion: Michael's son's first communion, the religious parade in New York, Fredo's repeating the Rosary in order to catch a fish, for example.

The cinematography is stunning; the footage from Sicily and New York around the turn of the century and the snow scenes from the American West are beautiful and rich in detail. Mr. Coppola has directed yet another masterpiece.

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156 out of 208 people found the following review useful:
Great ensemble acting, great story, greatest sequel ever made., 1 February 2000

Author: (ballen8@hotmail.com) from Derbyshire, UK

The Godfather Part 2 is the finest sequel ever made and is arguably a finer film than the original Godfather. The film is divided into two main parts - the story of a young Vito Corleone (flawlessly acted by Robert De Niro and a worthy Oscar winner) and the rise to power of Michael as the head of the family. Francis Coppola recollaborated with many of the crew members of the first film and again achieves a quite superb period piece thanks to the cinematography of Gordon Willis and set design of Dean Tavoularis. The acting performances are outstanding, hence three supporting oscar nominations for acting guru Lee Strasberg (Hyman Roth), Michael Gazzo (Frank Pentangeli) and Robert De Niro (young Vito Corleone). Duvall, Keaton, Cazale and Shire all provided first rate performances but it is the performance of Al Pacino which steals the show, expertly portraying Michael as a cool, calculating, suspicious Don Corleone. The film expands upon the original movie and brings us into the family's activities in Nevada, Florida and Havana. Arguably the finest movie of the 70s, a cinematic masterpiece with the greatest ensemble acting you will probably see.

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116 out of 138 people found the following review useful:
Breathtaking in its scope and tragic grandeur..., 10 March 2001

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Coppola's masterpiece is rivaled only by "The Godfather, Part II" in which the 1940s setting of the first movie is extended backwards and forwards to reveal the corrupting effect of power...The film, breathtaking in its scope and tragic grandeur, shows two parallel stories extending two different time periods: the early career of young Vito Corleone seen first around the turn of the 20th century in Sicily, and then in 1917, building his criminal underworld in the Italian ghettos of New York City, post World War I, plus that of his son, Michael (Al Pacino) desperately trying to keep his family together...

Al Pacino's performance is quiet and solemn... He is cold and ruthless, with a whole contrast from the idealistic innocent war hero we initially met at the beginning of the first film... Here he's a calculating and frightening force, seeking to expand casinos into Pre-Revolutionary Cuba and consolidating an empire surrounded by perfidy and treason, maintaining total confidence in his ability to control the situation whether testifying before enraging Senators or trying to outface his worst enemies...

The film's haunting final shot of a lonely, isolated paranoid Michael in his empty compound, is an unforgettable movie scene, a tragic portrait of a lonely and fully damned person, emotionally empty and finished, far from a waspish wife, more distant from a faithful lawyer...

De Niro's rise, from an orphan child by a family feud back in Italy to a hood in New York and his position as a respected Don, provides a welcome break from Pacino's relentless attitude... Since the people he kills seem to deserve it, Vito comes off better than Michael does, and it was wise of Coppola to shuffle the two stories together despite lengthy flashbacks and the disturbance of continuity...

The entire cast contributes greatly to the success of the film: Lee Strasberg, a fascinating mixture of lust and ruthlessness; G. D. Spradlin, absolutely right as the sinister and corrupt Nevada Senator; Michael V. Gazzo, unforgettable as the troubled gray-haired informer; Gastone Moschin, excellent as the blackmailer in white suit; John Cazale, marvelously timid as the vague, confused, and hesitant Fredo; Diane Keaton, clearly irrational as the long-suffering wife Kay; Talia Shire, too extravagant as the lousy mother; Troy Donahue too ambitious as the fortune-hunting suitor; and Robert Duvall excels as the confidant, and retainer to the all-powerful Corleone family...

Coppola's motion picture is not just a mere supply with new characters and events from the original, it's a far more complex and intimate movie than its predecessor... It is not really a sequel... It's just more... It cleverly shifts in time between two distinct narratives with extreme realistic violence and criminal mentality of gangsters...

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129 out of 177 people found the following review useful:
"The Godfather Part II is the greatest sequel ever made, one of the greatest films of all time and possibly finer than its superb predecessor *****", 31 December 2005

Author: galileo3 from United Kingdom

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Number 1 - 1974

Top 3 - 1970s

"My father taught me many things. Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer"

"The Godfather Part II is truly a masterpiece. Timeless, Classic, Beautiful and endlessly watchable"

The second part of Francis Ford Coppola's Epic and violent Gangster Trilogy, follows the reign of Don Michael Corleone as the head of the Corleone family. As well the film shows us the early years of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) played flawlessly by Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro, and how he created his empire of money, gambling and respect. Beautifully directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Godfather Part II exceeds every expectation with outstanding performances from Academy Award winners Al Pacino,Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro. The second part of this unforgettable trilogy is one of the finest films ever made.

This is cinematic art. A treasure of film history. The finest sequel ever made. A faultless, flawless gripping drama; Coppola's second part of his crime saga is in my opinion one of the top 5 films of all time and perhaps towering over the first part.

"As close to perfection as movies get"

"Pacino at his best"

-10/10-

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114 out of 171 people found the following review useful:
A Masterpiece, 15 October 2005

Author: JoshtheGiant from United States

The Godfather Part Two is possibly the best film ever made, every part of this film is amazing, it is even better than the original, I was very surprised by this. The story is amazing, everything makes perfect sense. The Oscar winning screenplay is amazing, the dialogue is some of the most original, and realistic ever putt on screen, the characters are flawless, and it's in every way perfectly written. The acting is just as fantastic, I can't believe Al Pacino lost the Oscar, and for once Robert De Niro was even better, he was truly amazing, and interestingly he fails to say a single word in English. The direction is also amazing, Francis Ford Coppola even does a better job than he did in The Godfather, and Apocalypse Now. The visual effects are so much better than the amazing one's in the original Godfather. One of the best films ever, a must see. Flawless.

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85 out of 115 people found the following review useful:
A Hollywood Masterpiece!!!!, 6 December 1998
Author: Bill Kelly (kellyw01@tigger.stcloudstate.edu) from USA

Francis Coppola and Mario Puzo continue their epic saga into the lives of the infamous Corleone family, which is headed by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). It is a film which does better than its predessor, "The Godfather". The film flip-flops graciously and beautifully between Michael's struggle over the family business and the life of young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro, in a brilliant, Oscar-winning performance) in his rise to power as well. Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Lee Strassberg, and John Cazale give excellent supporting performances. Carmine Coppola's and Nino Rota's score is a masterpiece of music. The movie is expertly filmed and the cinematography is superb.

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72 out of 90 people found the following review useful:
The Greatest Sequel During the Cinema's History, 13 October 2001
Author: tfrizzell from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"The Godfather, Part II" is excellent just like its predecessor. While the first is arguably the greatest film ever made, the second installment is easily the best sequel produced hands down. The film is split between the stories of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino, Oscar-nominated) and a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro, in his star-making, first Oscar-winning performance). In the 1950s, Michael is trying to expand his crime empire to locales such as Las Vegas, Hollywood, and even turbulent Cuba. However, there are numerous problems as older brother Fredo (John Cazale) may have double-crossed the family. Also two prominent crime bosses pose a considerable threat as well (Lee Strasberg and Michael V. Gazzo, both Oscar-nominated). Younger sister Connie (Oscar nominee Talia Shire) is still reeling from her husband's murder and her father's death at the conclusion of the original film. Michael is also distancing himself from his wife (Diane Keaton) and some of his most trusted friends (Robert Duvall). While all this is occurring we get glimpses into the early life of Michael's father (De Niro). We learn that his parents and older brother have been killed in early-1900s Sicily and that he has immigrated to New York. Vito pays his dues and learns the tricks of the trade, buying his time, before deciding to create his own small empire which would of course grow and become what we saw in the original. It would seem that the film would be confusing by jumping back and forth between Michael and his father, but that is not so. Coppola gives you just enough information to keep the audience intrigued through each segment. The film is very well-made and runs very smoothly even though it lasts over 200 minutes. Many think that this installment is the best of the series. Even though I still think that the original is the best, I cannot totally disagree with this assertion as this is the definitive sequel. 5 stars out of 5.

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127 out of 200 people found the following review useful:
Excellent, but could be in the dictionary under "sprawl", 10 May 2005

Author: Brandt Sponseller from New York City

Series note: It is almost unthinkable to watch this film without having seen The Godfather (1972) first. This is a direct continuation of that story.

The good news is that The Godfather Part II has many amazing qualities, including fantastic performances from a superb cast, sublime, unprecedented visuals that no one else has been able to capture since, and very engaging stories. The bad news is that this should have easily been a 10, but overall, it is so sprawling and unfocused that I can't possibly give it more than a 9, which it only earns because the assets transcend what's basically a mess overall. Because it should have been a 10, and most other reviews will tell you about the positive points at length, I may pick on more things in my review than you would think I would for a 9, but rest assured that even with the flaws, The Godfather Part II is still essential viewing.

Director/co-writer Francis Ford Coppola cleverly begins the film with parallels to The Godfather. We see Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) "in the role" of his father, Vito (Marlon Brando), from the first film, accepting prostrating guests while a party is going on outside. Like the first film, the party consumes a lot of time while we get to know some of the principal characters. Perhaps during this segment, perhaps a bit after, we realize that maybe the beginning wasn't so clever after all, because the structure of The Godfather Part II parallels The Godfather from a broad perspective, as if Coppola and co-writer Mario Puzo used the first film as something of a template to create this one.

After the party is over, there is an attempted hit on Michael, and we quickly learn that not everything is rosy in the Corleone's mafia world. Michael believes that someone on the "inside" was involved with the hit. This launches a complicated sequence of events that has Michael, who is now living in Nevada, traveling to Miami, Cuba, New York, and so on. He accuses different people of involvement in the attempted hit depending on whom he is talking to. This may have all been part of a grand scheme to set up the responsible parties, but one of the flaws of the film is that Coppola doesn't convey Michael's underlying thoughts about this very well, not even later, and not through his actions. Rather than feeling like a clever set-up, it starts to feel like slightly muddled writing.

During the middle section of the film, which goes on for hours, we also have a hint of a problem that plagued The Godfather--a bloated cast. There are bit too many characters who aren't well enough presented or explained. You may need to keep a scorecard.

Coppola and Puzo also treat us to many extended "flashback" segments, and I mean way back, to Vito as a boy and young man, played by Robert De Niro. For my money, these were the best scenes of the film, although maybe that's a bit of my bias creeping in, as I'm a huge De Niro fan.

But let's talk about the main plague of the film--sprawl. This is maybe first evident in the flashbacks. As good as they are, they go on far too long, and happen far too frequently, to sustain the momentum of either the Michael story or the Vito-as-a-youngster story. It begins to feel like we're toggling back and forth between two films, which is the track that should have been taken. The prequel, at least, would have been a solid 10.

There's also a lot of sprawl in the Michael Corleone segments. Coppola appears to have been suffering from what I'd now call "J.K. Rowling Syndrome". That happens when an artist becomes successful enough that they can fire or ignore their editor(s). Instead of taking good advice about where to trim fat, the artist decides to just leave much of it in, and they now have the clout to override any dissenting and more sensible opinions. The Michael Corleone story has a lot of fat, including much of the Cuba material (for example, sitting around the table with the President, laboriously passing around a solid gold telephone), the Senate hearings (which go on far too long to make and provide the dramatic points), and so on.

The film begins to feel more like a couple seasons of a television show that Coppola tried to cram into a 3 and a half hour film, or worse, a collection of deleted scenes. The scenes, except for the fat that needed to be trimmed, are excellent in isolation. But by the time the climax rolls around, the whole has more of an arbitrary feeling--this is especially clear in the dénouement, which seems to just end.

I've barely left myself room to talk about the good points. The first one, which most people mention, is the acting. There isn't a bad performance in the film, but Pacino, De Niro, and some relatively minor characters, like those played by Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and John Cazale, really stand out.

The second outstanding point, similar to the first film, is the beautiful visuals. Although all of the cinematography and production design is great, what really impressed me were some of the darkly lit scenes. Characters and features of sets emerge from pitch-blackness, and everything is rich, deep shades of burgundy, brown, and orange. Amazingly, nothing gets lost in these scenes. It must be incredibly difficult to achieve without making the shots too dark, because I can't remember another film since that has been able to capture the same look. The flashback scenes are also in similar, but lighter, colors, creating an appropriate sepia-tone feel.

Although the broad perspective problems are unfortunate, a closer focus on most segments of the film provides exemplary artistry. Given that, and the film's importance culturally, The Godfather Part II is a must-see.

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