Kill your idols: The Godfather

Comic Book Men had an opportunity to reflect the pratfalls of owning a small business (verging on obsolescence) in the 21st century. Instead, it's a D-list celebrity selling out his hobby while he figures out how to finance his next zero-budget dramedy. It's fake, and worse, it's dull and a disservice to comics.

 

Goodfellas and Sopranos don't exist without The Godfather, one of the groundbreaking movies from the 70's. It was based on a really crappy novel

Brando wasn't just good. He was off the charts superb.

 

I read the novel before seeing the movie. I loved the novel.

 

The Godfather is great and all, but it's no ...



Which was on TCM more recently (this past weekend) than The Godfather has been.

Without a doubt, in the top 5 of best worst movies ever made.

 

And Rudy Ray Moore had always been such a money draw.

 

Saying the Godfather isn't that great because it pales in comparison to what came after is like saying the Model T sucks compared to a 2015 Corvette because it's not as fast.
I have caught the majority of both I and II in the last week. And I still love everything about them. The pace. The performances. I've seen them both dozens of times and I just realized "damn, Michael loses his brother and his wife in a span of a day." For some reason I never appreciated the proximity of those two developments on his future persona. No wonder he's so fucked up.
I think your viewpoint on Star Wars, like just about every other movie, is largely dependent on when you saw them. I've tried to get my 4 yo to watch Episode 4 and he can't because it's horrifically slow by today's standards. Does that mean it sucks? Not to me. It's the first movie I ever saw in the theater. And that experience will stick with me forever even if it looks cheesy and stale up against whatever Marvel or Pixar puts out.

 

The biggest plot fault that I have with I is that, for a criminal boss, Vito is too virtuous. His acts at the wedding are benevolent (attacking a rapist, getting Enzo citizenship) and even Woltz is portrayed as evil with the hint of statutory rape. Even in II, young Vito is still the good guy at all times. In II, Michael has a bit of that, but his is a grayer figure.

The only thing which I don't about I is that Sonny's fight with Carlo looks terrible in terms of the punches not coming close to landing.

In II, the Fredo as Judas plotline was always the weak part to me.

 

But how much of that budget went to contractors working on the Death Star? And was that big payday worth the risks of getting blown up?

 

Star Wars holds up, and by that I mean, kids still love it. The story is good, but the dialogue can be terrible. It's that way for Star Wars and Empire. Jedi is mediocre, and the three prequels are all pieces of shit.

Terminator is one of my favorite movies of all-time. It doesn't bother me for a second that the effects are so cheap compared to the second one.

If someone wants to say Goodfellas is better than the first two Godfathers, I get that, but it is very possible to love both of them separately. They're very different films. Goodfellas is probably more realistic, but the Godfather movies are so stylish and so well-acted. Pacino is so good in them.

 

Kevin Smith had a great 10-year run.

The last 10 years, not so much...

 

I think some of that was so as not to infuriate the entire Italian population of America, as well as the specific community that was portrayed.

Certain concessions had to be made to get the movie shot, to get cooperation, and for their own safety.

 

I think it may have been on Larry King interview where I heard it but I can't exactly recall.

Supposedly the wedding scene is filled with real life mobsters as a way of placating some of the anger over the movie being made. Brando then mooned all of them on set and pissed them off so Coppola had to calm them all down.