Movie #3: The Godfather Part II

Movie #: 3
Movie Title: The Godfather Part II
Year Released: 1974

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Notable Cast: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Talia Shire, Morgana King, John Cazale, Marianna Hill, Lee Strasberg

Short Description: The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-revolution 1958 Cuba. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #32
IMDB.com: #3
Ranker.com: #4
Lifed.com: #8
Empire.com: #19
FilmCrave.com: #16
FlickChart.com: #8



Date Watched: 12/26/2016

Grade: 3 out of 5 (Good)

Rationale: I really enjoyed the occasional flashbacks to Vito Corleone's youth and his rise from an orphaned nine-year-old immigrant to "Godfather" status. I also thought the "present day" storyline of Michael Corleone attempting to run the family after his father's death was good. I just wish The Godfather Part II had a better idea of what it wanted to be. In my opinion there was no reason to mix flashbacks of Michael's father with Michael's current problems because they seemed so unrelated. Either the film should have focused on just Michael or it should have been a complete prequel featuring Vito. Honestly, I would have preferred the latter of those two options because Robert De Niro was impressive as a young adult version of Vito Corleone and with all of the people killed off in the first Godfather, a "present day" only movie would have been even more stretched thin plot and character wise.