‘Married To The Mob’ 1988 Review – AMC Mob Week – Movie Monday

Story: While recording this for when I was at school. My mother watched 5 minutes of this and told me it looked like it was going to be good. But when I saw “The Godfather… on laughing gas” I knew… I KNEW it was going to be crap. I mean come on. Plus, it’s Michelle Pieffer, I’ve never seen a really good film with her in it except Scarface. And she was only decent in that. Her version of Catwoman was lame in Batman Returns and I’ve never made an effort to see anything else with her in it. Well, the story to this sounds good for a night out with the girls, but I don’t think a group of girls would like this anyway. Alec Baldwin literally has 5 minutes of screentime and he was one of the thing I thought wasn’t going to suck about this. I was wrong. And the mob and the cops trying to go after her? They’re all randomly obsessed with her. That wasn’t realistic. Stupid jokes here and there that weren’t funny at all. Lame.

Visuals: A bland look with not so appealing locations. Clothes were lame. The opening credits were absurdly long and unnecessary.

Music: I didn’t here much music in this. But it was alright when I heard it. Nothing special.

Characters: I almost couldn’t stand Michelle Pieffer’s character. She was desperate, didn’t give a crap about her husband’s death and was just annoying. She was a lot like her character in Batman Returns. After just seeing Matthew Modine in The Dark Knight Rises, I thought he was going to be cool. Since after all, this is a mob movie. But no, he was one of those annoying stupid joke guys you want to punch in the face. And all those mob guys… the way I see mobsters is like guys in The Godfather. So I compare all mob characters to the way characters in The Godfather act since they seem to have the most accurate interpretations. Well, let me tell you, Married To The Mob mobsters suck. As a side note, Alex Baldwin had nice hair though.

Rewatch Value: I won’t ever be making an effort to see this again.

‘Donnie Brasco’ 1997 Review – AMC Mob Week – Movie Friday

Story: I was very impressed by this one. It’s based on a true story and it was very good. Going into this, I was thinking “Hey Johnny Depp is a cool guy, Al Pacino has a goofy overcoat”. That’s all I thought. I really didn’t know what it was about either, except that it had something to do with the mob. But to my suprise, I loved this movie. The ending was a little ehhh, but yeah, you know. They tried to stay to the real story and be as accurate as possible. They even got the real Joseph Pistone to be an advisor to the film to make sure they were staying true to the real story.

Visuals: The cinematography, lighting, and colors of the film were a little bland at parts, but overall, it was good.

Music: I didn’t notice much music really. I even tried paying attention to try and hear music. But I heard very little background music throughout the film. The opening credits music really fit with all the snapshots of Brasco and Lefty though. I even looked up that song after finishing the film.

Characters: Based on a true story, the characters were very interesting. Going into this, I couldn’t really imagine Johnny Depp playing a serious role after seeing films of his such as Pirates Of The Carribean, Willy Wonka, Alice And Wonderland, Edward Scissorhands, etc. As for Al Pacino, I did not like his big, fluffy, goofy coat he wore throughout the film.

Rewatch Value: Moderate. I’ll probably watch it again with my dad and so I can fully understand the story.

‘The Godfather Part III’ Review 1990 – AMC Mob Week – Movie Wednesday

Story: The story of this movie is more based off of continually than the past two movies. The story follows the events after part II and Micheal is shown more as a old man than a mob boss. This might have to do with the fact that Coppola didn’t want to do this movie, as he felt Part II did it nicely, but since he ran out of money, he took the long standing offer to make the third one. The story acts more like a unnecessary addition to the movies rather than a nice wrap up.

Visuals: The director of cinematography from the first two come back the third, and did a pretty decent job at it. I don’t feel that it is as good as the first two, but it could also be because we’ve seen a similar style in the past two movies.

Music: This music was composed by Coppola’s father this time around, and while it isn’t as strong as Rota’s music it isn’t bad. Of course, we would all rather have Rota do it.

Characters: Now, the Characters aren’t strongly portrayed in this. In the part II we’ve come to see Micheal Corleone as more of a bad guy, but in this movie, he is more of an old man. He isn’t the center of attention either, and we’re more focused around Vincent, his nephew, who has a clear goal, and possibly the strongest character of the film. Not because any of the Actors are bad, but they are given weak, and somewhat confusing roles.  Mary, Michael’s daughter is also a very weak character, which is strange seeing how she plays a somewhat important role. Overall, like stated before, the actors of the movie are good, but the characters given aren’t as strong as the actors could make them.

Rewatch Value: The rewatch value to this isn’t very strong. The story is weak, as are the characters. It also doesn’t help that this wasn’t originally planed during the making of the first two, but rather a way for Coppola to make a quick buck.

‘The Godfather Part II’ Review 1974 – AMC Mob Week – Movie Day

Story: There actually wasn’t a novel this movie was based on. Author Mario Puzo and director of the first Godfather movie just went on with the story. Puzo did write another Mafia-type novel called “The Sicillian”, which did mention the events in The Godfather Part II a bit, but not much since it was about different people. Fun fact, The Sicillian was also made into it’s own film, directed by Michael Cimino. Anyways, this is almost just as good as it’s predecessor, The Godfather, except it just isn’t quite as perfect. Mainly because Vito and Sonny Corleone is dead and Michael turns into the badguy in this film. One of the major positives of this film is the story of Young Vito Corleone. I absolutely loved EVERY moment of Young Vito. His beginning story was amazing, part of the reason being the performance by Robert De Niro, but I’ll get into that when I get to the characters.

Visuals: As the first one was, this one has beautiful cinematography. The Salt Lake City setting in Utah is nice too. I loved it.

Music: Nino Rota does it again. I think I’d actually say that this has a better soundtrack than the first. The other used most of the same song layed over and over and over again. This film, with the variety of locations such as New York, Utah, Sicily, etc. , the music is specially composed for each setting.

Characters: Don’t even get me started on how much I loved Robert De Niro’s performance. Oh wait, you just did. De Niro was so amazing at portraying Young Vito Corleone in this movie, with his look to his voice, I loved everything he did. His performance in this movie is in my top three favorite actor performances in any movie ever along with Heath Ledger as the Joker in 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight. De Niro even learned Sicilian dialect and lived in Sicily for 6 months prior to filming so he could be the best Young Vito he could possible be, and he accomplished it. Al Pacino, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire also had amazing performances I loved.

Rewatch Value: Like The Godfather, I also watch this quite frequently. Every time I see this on TV, no matter what I’m doing, I HAVE to watch this.

‘The Godfather’ Review 1972 – AMC Mob Week – Movie Monday

Story: How can you even review The Godfather or it’s sequels this day in age? No matter if somebody says they hate the movie or like it, EVERBODY and I mean EVERYBODY knows this is a great movie. It’s been regarded as one of the greatest films of all-time for so long, I mean, I can’t even explain how much I love this film. It is my number one favorite movie tied with The Dark Knight and Star Wars Episode III (Yes, that’s right, one of the prequels). Based on the novel written by genius, Mario Puzo, The Godfather is like Italian Star Wars. It has the perfect amount of love, violence, hatred, symbolism, and everything a film could possibly have. Not to mention, the film is like 2 hours and 55 minutes. That’s freaking long and almost 3 hours. Usually films that are long like this you get uncomfortable in your seat and just want it to end, like James Cameron’s 2009 flick, Avatar. But this, this is just great, you are on the edge of your seat the whole movie just watching the beginning Michael Corleone’s downfall. This movie proves the quote “Even the greatest of men can be corrupted” (Except Don Corleone, of course 😉 ).

Visuals: For a 1972 film, this has amazing cinematography. The Director Of Photography was Gordon Willis. He didn’t do much or any really memorable work after his camera work on The Godfather trilogy, but let me tell you, his cinematography in these movies are some of the best I’ve seen in all movies, period. From the first scene when we first see Don Corleone, in that dark lit room where he just see the shadows and creases of his face is amazing. You can’t get better than that.

Music: Composed by Nino Rota, I actually listen to this soundtrack every other day. That’s how amazing this soundtrack is. From the theme to some faint background music, everything is beautiful about this.

Characters: This has some of the greatest cast any movie has ever had. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the starring roles? Two men among the greatest actors of all-time. Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Diane Keaton, and James Caan. Almost all of those actors became some of the biggest stars in Hollywood after The Godfather came out.

Rewatch Value: I actually watch this quite often to be honest. I only first saw this in March when AMC had their “The Godfather 40th Anniversary Week”. I absolutely love this film, and you should too.