possibly the greatest sequel ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 2014)

Quite possibly the greatest sequel ever made.
The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone (Robert DeNiro) growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business.
A good movie for me is one that does not end with the credits. Too many movies are designed merely to amuse or entertain for 90 minutes or so. But there are other movies that cling to you, stay in your subconscious and you don't forget them. "Jaws" for example, who does not hear the "Jaws" theme and worry a little about what's below them when they are swimming just a little too far out in the ocean!!
Godfather 2 is another of those movies. Even before the short opening credits have finished, the movie already starts to take effect. This is not just a gangster movie, it's a movie that poses deep moral problems for all of the main characters. It doesn't attempt to answer questions. The rights and wrongs that these people do to each other. What would I have done, had I been in Michael Corleone's shoes?
Of the cast, Al Pacino deserved the Oscar for his work in this, the middle of his three Oscar Nominations for Best Actor in a row 73-75. "Serpico" and "Dog Day Afternoon" the other two. Even if Dustin Hoffman (Lenny) or Jack Nicholson (Chinatown) won that night, you could still argue that Pacino deserved it for his tour de force performance. But Art Carney winning (Harry & Tonto) makes the decision not to give it to Pacino all the more baffling. He is simply the core of a movie, which runs at over 3 hours long.
Robert Duvall effectively underplays as his mild mannered adviser Tom Hagan. An Oscar nominated Talia Shire shows she deserved a better career than being type cast a Adrian Balboa in the "Rocky" franchise. Her scene towards the end with Pacino should have seen her take the award home, but she was inexplicably beaten by Ingrid Bergman (For Murder On The Orient Express) Bruno Kirby looks more than at home in his scenes with De Niro and it's a wonder how he never got more work in this genre. Next gangster movie he made was again with Pacino and this time with Johnny Depp 1997's "Donnie Branco" which is a shame, he'd have made a great Al Capone. Lee Strasberg deserves special mention too for his role as Hyman Roth as does Joe Spinelli. A young actress called Kathleen Beller makes an impression in her small role, and it's a shame she never had more of an acting career.
And that is without even mentioning The Superb Robert De Niro who did win the Oscar Beating his costars Lee Strasberg and Michael V. Gazzo as well as after Astaire and a young Jeff Bridges (Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) to the award. This was a young De Niro when Mean Streets was the only movie he'd made of more, and you could already see his future as one of our greats.