A true classic in which you forget you're watching a movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2002)

What makes this movie so great is that the characters seem to leap off the screen, often after only a few minutes. I've never quite figured it out, but it's as if you already know these guys, their habits, their mannerisms, their strengths and faults. Like Clemenza, a guy you hate to love - he'd just as easily kill you as he would pick a weed off his lawn, yet you can't help but respect him. Respect him? What am I saying? But that's the ticket with this movie, Clemenza, Pauli, Tom, Santino, Sal ... these people are so real, it's scary. Oddly enough, the only person who seems an ill fit is Michael, at the start that is. How can anyone so clean cut be related? But Pacino makes it work (unbelievable acting) and nothing is more engaging that watching the 'transformation' he goes through as he becomes the Don.