The Godfather: Part II

I won’t claim that The Godfather II being my 1000th review was a coincidence. It wasn’t, I intentionally saved this anticipated movie experience for this very festive moment. It wasn’t worth much, though. I don’t know whether it was because of the excessive expectations, but the film never managed to pull me into the story, and I also tended to fall asleep due to the incredible runtime. The direction and the performances are flawless, but if Coppola were to film a three-hour long, very faithful adaptation of a parliamentary session with Al Pacino and De Niro, it would also get five stars, right? The sixth place in the top feels very exaggerated to me. (14/12/2008)

"This is the business we chose." The second part of the brilliant adaptation of an unforgettable book. Taking over the baton from Brando is the duo of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, who are absolutely incredible. No need to add more. Simply one of the best and most essential films of world cinema. (15/01/2007)

More elaborate, expensive, and monumental than the first film, but I can’t say which of them is of higher quality. In this second episode I somewhat miss the meaning of the retrospective part, where we follow a young Vito Corleone masterfully played by Robert De Niro. Of course, for the clarification and detailed description of the history of the Corleone family, it is good, but due to these inserts, the runtime is gigantic, and if we also add some less exciting passages depicting the present, the length of the film might be problematic for some viewers. Nevertheless, The Godfather II is more than a great film that describes relationships and business practices of mafia families in the 1940s and 1950s with incredible precision. Coppola did an outstanding job once again. (25/04/2004)

The Godfather Part II is a cinematic masterpiece that extends the story of the Corleone family into the higher realms intertwined with politics and the even darker rules of mafia practices. Whereas the disintegration of the family as the only real value of the protagonists’ existence was hinted at in the first film, the second, longest part is entirely about it. One timeline – about the childhood and adolescence of the first film’s most magnetic character (Marlon Brando), played perfectly by Robert De Niro – depicts the core of Vito Corleone’s personality in his early days in New York, while the other timeline examines his more inconsistent and darker son Michael, who became the most powerful American mobster of his time. It is a great role for the charismatic, respect-inspiring Al Pacino, whose Michael is capable of anything. More characters, a more interesting revealing of the workings of the most powerful underworld and even more pronounced between-the-lines plot shifts come together to form a chilling mosaic of thought. With all due respect to Martin Scorsese, it’s a good thing Francis Coppola remained the director of the trilogy. His more poetic form of storytelling suits it perfectly. (05/06/2022)

I consider it one of the best film sequels ever. The film is pure perfection. Robert De Niro was born for the role of young Vito Corleone, and Al Pacino’s expressions were so cold at times that I considered turning the heat up. The running time was over three hours, and even though it wasn’t full of frantic action, I couldn't tear myself away from the screen. A great film. (17/07/2017)