I agree with EDT's review that the key to the Godfather Part II was the transition from viewing Michael Corleone in a sympathetic, and even positive image, to that of nothing but a thug. There is a lot more appeal to the mafia in the original Godfather than there is in its sequel. The best moments of the sequel to me are the flashbacks of Vito Corleone's life and how he became the Godfather. Robert De Niro did an excellent job with his role, and the entire cast excelled as well. It keeps the same pace as the original, and the movies can easily be viewed as one work. Just take into consideration the dedication in time that this will take.

In some ways, a better movie than its predecessor, and its predecessor was a masterpiece. "The Godfather" was a violent picture, true, but it tended to view its mobsters through sentimental rose-colored glasses (probably in the same way that real-life mobsters like to see themselves). In "Godfather II", there's no such sophistry or illusions of nobility; the mob is divested of its bogus "glamour" and shown to be made up of a conglomeration of brutal, back-stabbing thugs interested in nothing but the making of money. In the first movie, Michael Corleone was depicted as a basically decent man who was forced to commit evil in the name of age-old traditions, familial obligations and "honor". Here, Michael is portrayed as an ice-cold and spiritually-empty societal parasite perfectly willing to murder his own brother in the name of "honor". "Sopranos" fans may recognize Dominic Chianese in the role of Johnny Ola, a character based on real-life Genovese mobster Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo. Al Pacino is, as usual, excellent, but almost as good, if not better, is John Cazale as the mousy, doomed Freddie Corleone. This is not an easy or sympathetic part to play, but Cazale manages to flawlessly invest Freddie with a pathetic but very real dignity and humanity. Richard Castellano is not on hand to re-create the role of Clemenza, but Michael Gazzo manages to make up somewhat for the loss in his role as the gravel-voiced old-school mobster Frankie Pentangeli. Lee Strasberg is on hand as a scheming Jewish mobster based on Meyer Lansky (Lansky supposedly called Strasberg after seeing the movie and chastised him for making the Hyman Roth character so callous and conniving), and Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall are, as always, superb. One of the greatest crime movies ever, as well as one of the greatest movies ever done on the themes of loneliness, betrayal, and ambition gone amuck.

All-time best sequel as well as one of the top ten films ever.