Death Race 2

If you were pleasantly surprised by the over-the-top action, violence and vehicular mayhem in '

Death Race,' Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of Roger Corman's classic 'Death Race 2000,' then you will be happy to hear that 'Death Race 2' is precisely what you want it to be: over-the-top action, violence and vehicular mayhem. If you weren't a fan of Anderson's film, however, you can safely move along as there's realistically no chance that you'll find more to be entertained by in this Roel Reine-directed follow-up.

 Unless, of course, the only reason you were turned off by its progenitor is because you, for whatever reason, hate Jason Statham. If that's the case, you may want to consider this straight-to-video sequel since it's got a new lead in the form of Luke Goss. And don't let that label deter you one iota, either: 'Death Race 2,' despite its World Premiere on DVD and Blu-ray, not only looks and sounds leagues better than most of its STV brethren, but it even has better production values than some recent theatrical action extravaganzas (that means you, 'Expendables').

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You also shouldn't let the number in the title mislead you; 'Death Race 2' is actually a prequel that shows the creation of the titular televised spectacle that pits prisoner against prisoner in a deadly (and awesomely absurd) car race. 

And while it is director Rene Reine's impressive ability to make his assuredly smaller budgeted production look and sound as vulgar as the first film that will draw people in, it's Tony Giglio's script that makes this more than a simple cash-in on a recognizable title. It does still suffer some of the problems that all prisoner competition movies suffer, but for every familiar malady - the inevitable rigging of the races, the sexy female producer that'll do anything for ratings - there's a welcome breath of fresh air.

 For starters, Luke Goss' character is an actual criminal. He's not a wrongly accused man fighting for his life, he's not a victim of betrayal out for revenge, he's not a casualty of the system; he's a murderer. A murderer with a conscious, granted, but it is a nice change of pace to have a hero that isn't the squeaky clean, "I don't belong here with these animals!" type. This may seem a small choice, but it's a deliberate one that helps give the film much needed grit in all of the right places.

Of course it doesn't hurt that Goss has more charisma and talent than you'd

 expect from the lead of films of this ilk, but that's not much of a surprise to anyone who has previously taken note of the often overlooked actor in any number of his other straight-to-video films (with his villainous role in 'Hellboy 2' being one of his few prominent theatrical roles). The rest of the new cast (you can count the carryovers from the first film on one hand, though I won't spoil who they are here) are certainly commendable, but all of the supporting roles are threadbare at best despite a few higher profile names - Sean Bean and Ving Rhames being the largest - filling their shoes.

Beyond the simple, but effective background of Goss' Carl Lucas, Giglio's script also tries its best to feature action outside of the races. Some of it is more thrilling than others (the highlight being a unique weapon choice we see in the deadly televised games that paved the way for Death Race), but even the film's duller moments are at least diverse enough to keep it from becoming a base clone of Anderson's film. Straight-to-video be damned, 'Death Race 2' maintains what made the original enjoyable while still striving to stand on its own two feet. If you're expecting anything beyond that, you're likely not the kind of person a film like this is made for in the first place.

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Source: http://news.moviefone.com/

Directed by	Roel Reiné
Produced by	Paul W. S. Anderson Jeremy Bolt Mike Elliott
Screenplay by	Tony Giglio
Story by	Paul W. S. Anderson Tony Giglio
Starring	Luke Goss Ving Rhames Danny Trejo Sean Bean Tanit Phoenix Robin Shou
Music by	Paul Haslinger
Cinematography	Scott Kevan
Edited by	Radu Ion Herman P. Koerts
Production company	Moonlighting Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	18 January 2011
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Australia United States
Language	English

Watch: Death Race 2 - Official Trailer

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CHENNAI EXPRESS (2013)

Given that most criticisms against Shahrukh Khan are about his off screen personality and his choice in films, it comes as a surprise that he would choose a movie that is full of self deprecating humor and almost a parody of his most famous roles, teaming up with a Director who is a master of the masala-entertainer.

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A typical story about being in wrong place at the wrong time, along with a language barrier plot device, CHENNAI EXPRESS refers to a train toute that our hero gets caught on, leading to the worst experience of his life. Shahrukh Khan is Rahul, a man with no ambitions or goals of his own, who spent his life following his grandfather’s instructions. After his death, Rahuldecides to live his own life by sneaking off to vacation with his friends. Things go awry when he saves, what he thought, was a damsel in distress, in typical Shahrukh Khan filmy romantic style. Instead, he becomes accomplice to the girl’s attempt to escape her arranged marriage by her crime boss father and his thugs. Things get worse when Rahul is dragged back to the mob boss father, and the girl Meena, played by Deepika Padukone, concocts a story about their together and her love forRahul, as a means of buying more time. Cue misunderstandings, deception and uber shenanigans.

 It’s a typical misunderstanding story with lies upon lies that traps the character in an overwhelming web is over the top situations with similarly over the top characters. But all of this is overwhelmed, as usual, by Shahrukh Khan’s performance; but for once, that’s not a bad thing. Khan, in one of his rarest roles ever, plays a cowardly mouse of  man, who is less than equipped to handle the situations he finds himself in. Looking to run away at every turn, Rahul has no loyalty and expresses no sense chivalry regarding Meena’s situation. This is a huge departure from Khan’s various usual hero portrayals where his larger than life off screen persona completely takes over the character.

The story takes a few twists and turns, through some scenic locales, whileMeena and Rahul fake being a couple yet again to hide in a village while on the run from the 7 foot giant that wants to marry Meena. As far as a typical Rohit Shetty movie goes, CHENNAI EXPRESS is entertaining and funny, with a fresh fish out of water story that includes a language barrier of Rahul’s North Indian Hindi with Meena’s South Indian Tamil, requiring the two to speak by improvising the lyrics of existing Bollywood movie songs so they can communicate in secret from Meena’s Tamil speaking family. It’s a plot device that gets the most laughs, while other elements add to the richness of the story even more. Non-Bollywood fans are at a serious disadvantage with this movie though, given that a  pre-existing knowledge of Bollywood movies is required to fully appreciate this gag.

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I return to Shahrukh Khan’s performance, as it’s something worthy of note, for the often criticized Khan. Despite his huge talent and caliber of success in the industry, Khan’s choice of commercial films always seem to pander to the lowest common denominator, which rub some people the wrong way. In CHENNAI EXPRESS however, Khan gets leaves all the ego behind, and deliveries jokes, most of which mock and parody many of his  own famous performances and portrayals. The most common punch line is the role that catapulted Khan to fame in DARR, where he would psychotically stutter the heroine’s name as he stalks her, while here, it’s used by Khan as false bravado, right before he cowers away from a confrontation. It’s a genius move on Khan’s part to essay a role that is in no way the typical grandiose and charming hero that is has become infamous for, but rather a character with so many flaws that he is barely likeable, but very hilarious. The consistency of this performance stays true even in the fight scenes, where he doesn’t automatically become an action star, but had to resort to using weapons and other underhanded tactics in order to best the physically imposing villain.

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CHENNAI EXPRESS (2013)

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Mumbai Can Dance Saalaa (2015)

Bar dancer Tarannum Khan financed C-grade movies at her prime, only to have an F-grade film "loosely based" on her made a decade later. Don't correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm certain that she didn't already live in a large haveli in Mumbai, when her father tells her he can't pay her college fees (10k). He dies in generic riots, and a mandatory Maula song begins while: Mother becomes maid, poverty porn, local trains, sweat, Jogeshwari station shots, job interviews, sleazy bosses, Haji Ali shots, repeat. To be fair, actress Ashima Sharma does resemble Tarannum a bit. If only this film resembled a film too. 

I was under the impression Mumbai Can Dance Saala was about a dance competition. I was reasonably sure Shakti Kapoor and Aditya Pancholi would play rival coaches, with Prashant Narayanan as an outcast maverick dancer. As it turns out, Kapoor, in an attempt to look less lecherous, plays a gay designer. He stitches bargirl dresses only, a low-budget Stanley Tucci from The Devil Wears Prada. He bellows for a waiter in a British accent, apparently a sure sign of homosexuality. His shirts are tight and his surprisingly pale belly fat proudly pops out. An effeminate "Hello" thunders on screen, before he spouts gems like, "Yeh hai Anna, sab ko khilata hai Ganna!" 

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But neither he nor Bappi da as music director is the highlight of this...thing. Neither is the Dubai don called 'Badshah', who has an item song called Badshah, and strolls to 'Badshah' background chants. None of them come close to Julie, a veteran bargirl and selfappointed idol to the young'uns. "You jhoppadpatti!" she yells, in a heated exchange with her lover in Dubai. When she isn't breathing heavily on his face, she calls him a street dog. I've adopted one recently, and he is trying to bite me as I write about her. Julie's screen presence is accompanied by cries of a wildcat in heat. Rakhi Sawant, who now resembles Chucky from Child's Play, is Julie. Thankfully, her voice is dubbed. 

The second half ran with an audio lag of 5 seconds. Suddenly, dogs began talking in Prashant's voice, Rakhi began to purr ferociously, and Shakti spoke in moans. This, without doubt, became the greatest auteur work since Godard's defiant Goodbye To Language 3D. If only it was intentional. 

On a serious note, if this is a sign of things to come in 2015, I might consider alternate career options.

Directed by	Sachindra Sharma
Produced by	Ranjeet Sharma
Written by	Sachindra Sharma
Starring	Ashima Sharma Rakhi Sawant Prashant Narayanan Aditya Pancholi Shakti Kapoor
Music by	Songs: Bappi Lahiri Nitin Shankar Naresh Karwala Lyrics: Shabbir Ahmed Dr. Deepak Sneh Taufiq Pallavi Naresh Karwala
Distributed by	Zee Music Company
Release dates	2 January 2015
Country	India
Language	Hindi

MUMBAI CAN DANCE SAALAA OFFICIAL TRAILER

MUMBAI CAN DANCE SAALAA

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

There are standard ways to stage a prison film and standard ways to tell a story by Stephen King. But "The Shawshank Redemption," based on a King novella and set in the correctional institution of the title, succeeds in avoiding the familiar.

Without a single riot scene or horrific effect, it tells a slow, gentle story of camaraderie and growth, with an ending that abruptly finds poetic justice in what has come before. The writer and director, Frank Darabont, tells this tale with a surprising degree of loving care.

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There are times when "The Shawshank Redemption" comes dangerously close to sounding one of those "triumph of the human spirit" notes. But most of it is eloquently restrained. Despite an excess of voice-over narration and inspirational music, Mr. Darabont's film has a genuine dignity that holds the interest. It is helped greatly by fine, circumspect performances from Morgan Freeman as a rueful lifer named Red and Tim Robbins as Andy, the new kid on the cellblock. The film spans nearly 20 years of friendship between these two.

When Andy is convicted of his wife's murder, the judge pronounces him "a particularly remorseless and icy man." He sustains that chill when he first arrives at Shawshank, remaining aloof from other inmates even when those inmates threaten him with physical harm. "I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight," says Red, who knows Andy has been gang-raped by fellow prisoners, in one of the film's only halfway-brutal episodes. "I wish I could tell you that, but prison is no fairy-tale world."

Needless to say, the heroes of such stories usually do succeed in defending themselves, at least when Hollywood is telling the fairy tale. But "The Shawshank Redemption" has its own brand of iconoclasm, with Mr. Darabont's direction as quiet, purposeful and secretive as Andy is himself.

Eventually Andy begins to fit in, especially after he wows the guards with skills left over from his pre-prison banking career. From the first time he advises one guard to make a one-time-only tax-free gift to his wife, Andy gets a new lease on life as "a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning."

Andy does special fiscal favors for the warden. ("You know, the funny thing is, on the outside I was an honest man, straight as an arrow," he says about this. "I had to come to prison to be a crook.") He also makes the occasional dramatic gesture, like commandeering the prison's loudspeaker and playing a Mozart aria for all his fellow inmates. The film has a tendency to wax romantic at such moments, but more often it sustains an intelligent reserve.

Mr. Freeman is so quietly impressive here that there's reason to wish Red's role had more range. As written, he spends his time observing Andy fondly and describing prison life. But Mr. Freeman's commanding presence makes him a much stronger figure than that. Mr. Freeman is especially moving when he suggests how dependent Red has become on the prison walls that give shape to his life. Even so, Red has kept his ruefulness. "Only guilty man in Shawshank," he jokes about himself.

Mr. Robbins has the trickier role of someone whose still waters run deep, but whose experience doesn't add up until an exposition-packed denouement. (The film's swift, enjoyably farfetched closing scenes are a sharp reminder of who is the author of this story, after all.) Andy's is the more subdued role, but Mr. Robbins plays it intensely, and he ages effectively from newcomer to father figure during the story. One of Andy's projects is improving the prison library, which once contained nothing but the equivalent of books by Stephen King.

To raise funds for this undertaking, Andy is steady and patient, writing weekly letters to state officials until he gets what he wants. Mr. Darabont, a screenwriter making an impressive directorial debut, works in much the same quietly persistent way. "The Shawshank Conspiracy" takes shape slowly and carefully, displaying an overall subtlety that's surprising in a movie of this genre. In the end, like Andy and Red, it gets to where it wanted to go.

Source: www.nytimes.com/

Directed by	Frank Darabont
Produced by	Niki Marvin
Screenplay by	Frank Darabont
Based on	Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
Starring	Tim Robbins Morgan Freeman Bob Gunton William Sadler Clancy Brown Gil Bellows James Whitmore
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Edited by	Richard Francis-Bruce
Production company	Castle Rock Entertainment
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	September 10, 1994(Toronto) September 23, 1994(United States)
Running time	142 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million[1]
Box office	$28.3 million(North America)[1]

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) HD trailer

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

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The Matrix 1999

"The Matrix" is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting interesting. It's kind of a letdown when a movie begins by redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a shoot-out. We want a leap of the imagination, not one of those obligatory climaxes with automatic weapons fire.

I've seen dozens if not hundreds of these exercises in violence, which recycle the same tired ideas: Bad guys fire thousands of rounds, but are unable to hit the good guy. Then it's down to the final showdown between good and evil--a martial arts battle in which the good guy gets pounded until he's almost dead, before he finds the inner will to fight back. Been there, seen that (although rarely done this well).

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Too bad, because the set-up is intriguing. "The Matrix" recycles the premises of "Dark City" and "Strange Days," turns up the heat and the volume, and borrows the gravity-defying choreography of Hong Kong action movies. It's fun, but it could have been more. The directors are Larry and Andy Wachowski, who know how to make movies (their first film, "Bound," made my 10 best list in 1996). Here, with a big budget and veteran action producer Joel Silver, they've played it safer; there's nothing wrong with going for the Friday night action market, but you can aim higher and still do business.

Warning; spoilers ahead. The plot involves Neo (Keanu Reeves), a mild-mannered software author by day, a feared hacker by night. He's recruited by a cell of cyber-rebels, led by the profound Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and the leather-clad warrior Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). They've made a fundamental discovery about the world: It doesn't exist. It's actually a form of Virtual Reality, designed to lull us into lives of blind obedience to the "system." We obediently go to our crummy jobs every day, little realizing, as Morpheus tells Neo, that "Matrix is the wool that has been pulled over your eyes--that you are a slave." The rebels want to crack the framework that holds the Matrix in place, and free mankind. Morpheus believes Neo is the Messianic "One" who can lead this rebellion, which requires mind power as much as physical strength. Arrayed against them are the Agents, who look like Blues Brothers. The movie's battles take place in Virtual Reality; the heroes' minds are plugged into the combat. (You can still get killed, though: "The body cannot live without the mind"). "Jacking in" like this was a concept in "Strange Days" and has also been suggested in novels by William Gibson ("Idoru") and others. The notion that the world is an artificial construction, designed by outsiders to deceive and use humans, is straight out of "Dark City." Both of those movies, however, explored their implications as the best science fiction often does. "Dark City" was fascinated by the Strangers who had a poignant dilemma: They were dying aliens who hoped to learn from human methods of adaptation and survival.

In "Matrix," on the other hand, there aren't flesh-and-blood creatures behind the illusion--only a computer program that can think, and learn. The Agents function primarily as opponents in a high-stakes computer game. The movie offers no clear explanation of why the Matrix-making program went to all that trouble. Of course, for a program, running is its own reward--but an intelligent program might bring terrifying logic to its decisions.

Both "Dark City" and "Strange Days" offered intriguing motivations for villainy. "Matrix" is more like a superhero comic book in which the fate of the world comes down to a titanic fist-fight between the designated representatives of good and evil. It's cruel, really, to put tantalizing ideas on the table and then ask the audience to be satisfied with a shoot-out and a martial arts duel. Let's assume Neo wins. What happens then to the billions who have just been "unplugged" from the Matrix? Do they still have jobs? Homes? Identities? All we get is an enigmatic voice-over exhortation at the movie's end. The paradox is that the Matrix world apparently resembles in every respect the pre-Matrix world. (I am reminded of the animated kid's film "Doug's 1st Movie," which has a VR experience in which everything is exactly like in real life, except more expensive.) Still, I must not ignore the movie's virtues. It's great-looking, both in its design and in the kinetic energy that powers it. It uses flawlessly integrated special effects and animation to visualize regions of cyberspace. It creates fearsome creatures, including mechanical octopi. It morphs bodies with the abandon of "Terminator II." It uses f/x to allow Neo and Trinity to run horizontally on walls, and hang in the air long enough to deliver karate kicks. It has leaps through space, thrilling sequences involving fights on rooftops, helicopter rescues and battles over mind control.

And it has performances that find the right notes. Keanu Reeves goes for the impassive Harrison Ford approach, "acting" as little as possible. I suppose that's the right idea. Laurence Fishburne finds a balance between action hero and Zen master. Carrie-Anne Moss, as Trinity, has a sensational title sequence, before the movie recalls that she's a woman and shuttles her into support mode. Hugo Weaving, as the chief Agent, uses a flat, menacing tone that reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones in passive-aggressive overdrive. There's a well-acted scene involving Gloria Foster as the Oracle, who like all Oracles is maddeningly enigmatic.

"The Matrix" did not bore me. It interested me so much, indeed, that I wanted to be challenged even more. I wanted it to follow its material to audacious conclusions, to arrive not simply at victory, but at revelation. I wanted an ending that was transformational, like "Dark City's," and not one that simply throws us a sensational action sequence. I wanted, in short, a Third Act.

Source: www.rogerebert.com/

Directed by	The Wachowski Brothers
Produced by	Joel Silver
Written by	The Wachowski Brothers
Starring	Keanu Reeves Laurence Fishburne Carrie-Anne Moss Hugo Weaving Joe Pantoliano
Music by	Don Davis
Cinematography	Bill Pope
Edited by	Zach Staenberg
Production companies	Village Roadshow Pictures Groucho II Film Partnership Silver Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.(United States) Roadshow Entertainment(Australia)[1]
Release dates	March 31, 1999(United States) April 8, 1999 (Australia)
Running time	136 minutes[2]
Country	United States Australia[3]
Language	English
Budget	$63–65 million[4][5]
Box office	$463.5 million[4][5]

The Matrix 1999 Official Trailer

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The Godfather: Part II

The musical score plays an even greater role in “The Godfather: Part II” than it did in the original film. Nostalgic, mournful, evoking lost eras, it stirs emotions we shouldn’t really feel for this story, and wouldn’t, if the score were more conventional for a crime movie. Why should we regret the passing of a regime built on murder, extortion, bribery, theft and the ruthless will of frightened men? Observe how powerfully Nino Rota’s music sways our feelings for the brutal events onscreen.

At the end of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterwork “The Godfather” (1972), we have seen Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) change from a young man who wanted to stand apart from his family to one who did not hesitate to take up the reigns of control. In “Part II” (1974), we see him lose his remaining shreds of morality and become an empty shell, insecure and merciless. If the score evokes pity, it is Michael’s self-pity. In attempting to fill the shoes of his father, Michael has lost sight of those values that made Don Corleone better than he had to be and has become a new godfather every bit as evil as he has to be. If Rota’s score had been energetic and pounding, we might see him as more closely paralleling Tony Montana in a better film, Brian DePalma’s “Scarface” (1983). But the score is sad, and music can often evoke emotion more surely and subtly than story. Consider how deeply we are moved by certain operatic arias that are utter nonsense.

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The devolution of Michael Corleone is counterpointed by flashbacks to the youth and young manhood of his father, Vito (Robert De Niro). These scenes, taking place in Sicily and old New York, follow the conventional pattern of a young man on the rise and show the Mafia code being burned into the Corleone blood. No false romanticism conceals the necessity of using murder to do business. Such events as Vito’s murder of the minor-league New York godfather have their barbarism somewhat softened as Coppola adopts Vito’s point of view and follows him as he climbs rooftops to ambush the man and successfully escapes. It is a built-in reality that we tend to identify with a film’s POV. Here the murder becomes another rung on Vito’s ladder to success.

To be sure, the life of young Vito helps to explain the forming of the adult Don Corleone, and to establish in the film the Sicilian code of omerta. As Michael changes, we see why he feels that he must. He must play the game by its rules. But I am not sure the flashbacks strengthen the film. I would have appreciated separate films about young Vito and the evolution of Michael. Never mind. What we have are two compelling narratives, two superb lead performances and lasting images. There is even a parallel between the deaths of two elderly dons. Revenge must be obtained.

Coppola is at the top of his form in both films, and if I disapprove of the morality of the central characters, well, so do we all. We agree people should not kill one another, but that doesn’t explain why these films are seen again and again, entering a small worldwide canon of films just about everyone seems to have seen. They are grippingly written, directed with confidence and artistry, photographed by Gordon Willis (“The Master of Darkness”) in rich, warm, tones. The acting in both films is definitive. We can name the characters in a lot of films (Harry Lime, Scarlett O’Hara, Travis Bickle, Charles Foster Kane) but from how many films do we remember the names of six or more characters? Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Duvall, Cazale, Caan, Diane Keaton, Lee Strasberg, Talia Shire, Michael V. Gazzo and others are well-cast, well-used, gifted and correct for their roles.

Simply as a story, the Michael scenes in “The Godfather: Part II” engage our emotions. I admire the way Coppola and his co-writer Mario Puzo require us to think along with Michael as he handles delicate decisions involving Hyman Roth (Strasberg), the boss of Miami; Fredo (Cazale), his older brother, and the shooting of Sonny (James Caan). Who has done what? Why? Michael floats various narratives past various principals, misleading them all, or nearly. It’s like a game of blindfolded chess; he has to envision the moves without seeing them.

But finally it is all about Michael. Even the attack on the night of his son’s first communion party is on his bedroom, not our bedroom. His wife, Kay (Keaton), leaves him, and his focus does not waver: He will keep his son. Tom Hagen (Duvall), the most trusted confidant of father and son, considered a brother, is finally even suspected. In Michael’s life, paranoia is a useful defense mechanism.

Coppola shows Michael breaking down under the pressure. We remember that he was once a proud war hero, a successful college student, building a legitimate lifestyle. But on their wedding day, Kay first began to fully realize what an all-controlling cocoon the Corleone clan was. There would always be things she could not be told about, could not be trusted with. Finally Michael has no one to tell or trust except his elderly mother (Morgana King). Michael’s desperation in that intense conversation explains everything about the film’s final shot.

So “Part II” is finally a sad film, a lament for loss, certainly. It is a contrast with the earlier film, in which Don Corleone is seen defending old values against modern hungers. Young Vito was a murderer, too, as we more fully see in the Sicily and New York scenes of Part II. But he had grown wise and diplomatic, and when he dies beside the tomato patch, yes, we feel regret. An age has closed. We feel no regret at Michael’s decline. The crucial difference between the two films is that Vito is sympathetic, and Michael becomes a villain. That is not a criticism but an observation.

The “best films” balloting on IMDb.com lacks credibility because popularity is the primary criteria. But hundreds of thousands do indeed vote, and as I write the top four films, in order, are “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Godfather,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Godfather: Part II.” Of all of the reviews I have ever written, my three-star review of “Part II” has stirred the most disagreement. Sometimes it is simply cited as proof of my worthlessness. I’ve been told by many that “Part II” is a rare sequel that is better than the original. Have I changed my mind? No. I have read my review of “Part II” and would not change a word.

Then why is it a “great movie”? Because it must be seen as a piece with the unqualified greatness of       “The Godfather.” The two can hardly be considered apart (“Part III” is another matter). When the characters in a film take on a virtual reality for us, when a character in another film made 30 years later can say “The Godfather” contains all the lessons in life you need to know, when an audience understands why that statement could be made, a film has become a cultural bedrock. No doubt not all of the gospels are equally “good,” but we would not do without any of them.

“The Godfather: Part II” then becomes a film that everyone who values movies at all should see. And as I write this, it can be seen in astonishingly good prints. The “Godfather” trilogy has been painstakingly digitally restored by Robert Harris, a master in his field. I have seen the restored “Godfather” in the new 35mm print and “Part II” in the new Blu-ray DVD. Having first seen both at their world premieres, I would argue that they have never looked better. For films of such visual richness, that is a reason to rejoice.

And now I come back to the music. More than ever, I am convinced it is instrumental to the power and emotional effect of the films. I cannot imagine them without their Nino Rota scores. Against all our objective reason, they instruct us how to feel about the films. Now listen very carefully to the first notes as the big car drives into Miami. You will hear an evocative echo of Bernard Hermann’s score for “Citizen Kane,” another film about a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it.

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Source: www.rogerebert.com/

The Godfather: Part II (1974) (HD Trailer)

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