The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo

The movie runs two parallel stories, one on Michael Corleone (Pacino) and the other on his father Vito (De Niro) and his entry into the mafia world. After the death of his father and brother, Michael Corleone is now heading the Corleone family business. Frank Pentangeli (Gazzo) who took over Peter Clamenza's territory after his death, is facing some problems with the Rosato Brothers. The Rosato Brothers are backed by Hyman Roth (Starsberg) a Jew who has had good relations with the Corleone family in the past. Michael realises that by interfering, he might lose the trust of Roth, something which he cannot afford to do. After a failed assassination attempt at his life, Michael suspects either the hand of Pentangeli or Roth behind the assassination. The life of his wife and kids are at stake and he needs to do something to ensure his security. The movie goes occasionally back in time to show the upbringing of Vito Corleone and his entry into America. Vito grew up in a neighbourhood where local landlords extorted money from people in order to allow them to run business. Vito saw that many people were regularly harassed by them and decided to put an end to the peoples misery and landlords control. Their end saw the beginning of the Corleone family. From a personal stand point, the second movie feels and looks much better than the previous one. Although it is obscenely long, it still manages to hold the audience attention together and uncovers the dirty happenings of the mafia lords. Performances are by far the best ever with Al Pacino proclaiming himself king of crime movies. The movie expects you to pay close attention to the regular occurrences in the plot and if you lose sync, you might just lose the entire focus of the movie. A compulsory watch if gangsters and henchmen are what your looking for.

Thumbs up: Great plot, fantastic performances. Al Pacino at his best

Thumbs down: Michael Corleone will shoot you down if you try to think about this one.

Rating: 8.8/10