How rare a pearl.....

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 1999)

This is a film--it's too dignified to call it a movie--that shatters things we usually take for granted about the genre. Movies are never as good as the books on which they're based--but this one is. Films about Italians always wallow in stereotypes--but this one doesn't. All-star epics always disappoint--but this one doesn't.
Pacino is truly amazing to watch as he gets drawn into the family business, and Brando's best scene is, oddly enough, his final one, where he's playing with his grandson. This is a man who's ordered countless deaths, beatings, etc., but to a small child, he's just Grampa, and he's the most wonderful grownup in the whole wide world.
If you've never seen this movie, you're doing yourself an injustice. Get it, see it, experience it.