I'll make him another offer he can't refuse....

I remember when I started this movie review saga at the start of the year. I would get excited and really make a big deal about watching a movie and cooking something nice. Unfortunately now I am starting to think to myself - "Oh no, it is movie night again". Watching The Godfather: Part 2 has not helped. Probably for the first time I started watching this movie with an absolutely clear mind, no expectations, no idea what happens in it and I was in a good mood. 30 minutes into the movie and I felt like I was about to experience the equivalent of running a marathon. I was already fighting the sleep. Like running a marathon I was tackling the movie in small segments at a time - just another 5 minutes, you can do this, must try to concentrate.
I can't believe The Godfather: Part 2 won 6 Academy Awards. Let me list them -
* Best Actor in a supporting role
* Best art direction-Set decoration
* Best director
* Best Music, Original dramatic score
* Best picture
* Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material

For me this movie was just more of the same. And at over 3 hours in length, it failed to capture my attention. It probably didn't help that my version didn't have any subtitles and probably 20 to 30 minutes of the film is spoken in Sicilian. So for all that time it was like watching the Italian news on SBS. I had to look at the pictures to try to figure out what was happening.

The movie goes back into the past to show how a young Vito Corleone (played by Robert De Niro) got into the ganster business. These were the scenes that were totally in Sicilian so they were useless to me. The story then comes back to the present with Michael Corleone running the family business and having troubles. The story revolves around business deals, killing people who get in your way, revenge killing, stuff that I have seen already in the first movie. Now to be honest I went on the IMDB website to find out how certain characters double crossed others because I couldn't work it out. To my surprise, nobody else had worked it out either. So are people liking ths movie on the premise that if it is confusing, then it must be deep and profound and therefore it is great? I must also admit that I still have over an hour of the movie still to watch! I pulled up short of the finish line in my marathon, I was fatigued. I may watch the rest of the movie at a later date but I really have no desire to do so. I can already predict what will happen - killings, some revenge killings, some business negotiations, and more killings.

The only positive I have about this movie is the acting. I think Al Pacino is great. I've even placed him on my list of favourite actors along with Tom Hanks, Humphrey Bogart, and Yahoo Serious.

Next week I watch The Godfather: Part 3, the movie that is universally agreed as being by far the worst of The Godfather movies. If that is the case it should get my lowest rating so far,and that is not such a bad thing for me. I love to whinge, complain and ululate about a movie. Mind you, I can't wait to see a really good one.

My rating -
The Godfather: Part 2 - 4 bullets