The Godfather Part II: Amazing!

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2007)

The Godfather Part II
Along with The Godfather, The Godfather Part II is second only to Goodfellas as the greatest movie ever. This is equal to The Godfather Part 1 in every way. When there is a superiority in Part 1, Part 2 corrects that.
Plot: The plot is just as good as The Godfather Part 1. There are two stories. If this had not been done right it would have been disastrous. Fortunately it was done right every step of the way. The first story deals with Vito Corleone's (Robert De Niro) rise to power and becoming the Godfather. The other story deals with a bloody war between Michael Corleone and Meyer Lansky based mobster, Hyman Roth.
Acting: The characters are not as interesting as the characters of its predecessor because it is a sequel. However it matches this with its slightly superior and superb acting. Al Pacino gives the greatest performance of his life and one of the greatest performances of all time, reprising his role as Michael Corleone and giving an absolutely chilling performance as a man who slowly and subtly succumbs more and more into the world of crime. This is the movie where he should have won Best Actor. Robert De Niro gave another fantastic performance winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the you Vito Corleone. John Cazale gave a nomination worthy performance as Fredo Corleone expanding the character from the Godfather by himself and giving new meaning to the word Fredo. Other great performances include Talia Shire, Morgana King, Robert Duvall, Lee Strasberg, and Michael V. Gazzo.
Genre/Quality: The movie still stays the same with crime but also raises more family issues. While the 1st film appeared to glorify crime, the continued series deals with the dark side in this movie. As with the first movie the music is great. Camera angles are fantastic. Transition between the 50's and early 1900's are also great. They really made the rise of Vito scenes match the world of that time period.
Overall this is a fantastic not to be missed movie which equals The Godfather Part 1 and both are second only to Goodfellas.
10/10