St. Patty's Day update - #32 The Godfather II & #31 The Maltese Falcon

This is a great run of flicks. To make sure I wasn't stuck in front of the tv all morning on St. Patty's Day and to get to my green beer quicker, I watched the Godfather Part 2 yesterday.

To make it simple, if you've never seen any of the Godfather films (well, really just the first two...but watch them all for continuities sake), you need to. Like right now. Go. Watch them.

The Godfather II is the first sequel to ever win an Oscar and most argue that it's better than the first. It's different that's for sure but it really is a masterpiece. It's going to be tough to beat this one.

Al Pacino is phenomenal in this - calm, cool, collected. Rarely has any outbursts but when he does you better not be in the room. He's so calculated but at the same time seems so serene and a dude you'd want to be friends with. Just don't try to kill him.

Robert Duvall, as always an amazing addition to the Corleone family. And the standard Coppola family inclusions (Talia Shire, etc) are great. I also have to mention John Cazale - who plays Fredo. John passed away early in life after a battle with cancer. Not only was he dating Meryl Streep when he died, he had only ever appeared in 5 movies (over 6 years). ALL OF THEM WERE NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE.

The film splits between normal time and flashback to Vito Corleone and how he came to be. This is where DeNiro won his only Oscar. Doesn't say much, but he definitely commands the room - some great knife work too.

The Godfather II is a brilliant masterpiece and I could watch it again and again. I'm eager to get to the original Godfather to see how it compares now that it's fresh in my mind.

The Maltese Falcon is another great movie and like I said earlier when I wrote about the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, I prefer my Bogey to me suave. This helped - as he's a pretty pimped out Detective tracking down not only the treasure that everyone else is looking for (the Maltese Falcon), but the truth behind the murder of his partner, and others....while macking this woman the whole time.

It's a pretty intricate plot for the time and it's crisp back and forth pace helps, as I could see a lot of people losing interest with so many moving pieces. There are a few carry overs from Casablanca in this actor wise but I would rank it right behind Casablanca as one of Bogey's best.

If you like detective type movies and want to see one of the films that started the whole genre, then the Maltese Falcon is a definite must. It started a lot of the Detective/cop show cliches.

The bad guys are pretty dumb though, I'll give them that. Makes catching them pretty easy.

Just look at this guy - so effortless to be the coolest guy in the room