Wowzers! Unoriginal?

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2003)

I got a laugh from the people who found this film to be unoriginal, lukewarm, or not up to the standards of other mob films or tv shows. "The Godfather" is the grand daddy of them all! Coppola and Puzo practically invented the genre of "mafiosi as Shakespeare". Given how subsequent films and tv shows have run with these themes (even done them to death) most of what you're left with in this film is acting and craftsmanship. But man o man. It doesn't get better. "Shawshenk Redemption", in contrast, was a good installment of the Hallmark Hall of Fame.