{"id":387894,"date":"2026-04-19T23:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387894\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T23:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:09:20","slug":"greatest-sequel-in-movie-history-is-free-to-stream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387894\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Sequel In Movie History Is Free To Stream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask anyone on the street to name the greatest movie of all time, and you\u2019ll get a wide range of answers, from Avengers: Endgame to Gone with the Wind, but ask someone to name the greatest sequel ever, and it narrows the field. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is in the conversation, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan is a classic, but nothing compares to The Godfather: Part II, not only is the best sequel ever made, it\u2019s one of the greatest movies in history. Both sequel and prequel, the return of Michael and Vito Corleone pulled off the rare feat of improving on the near-perfection of the original.<\/p>\n

The Godfather Part II Is A Cinematic Masterpiece\"Robert<\/p>\n

Robert De Niro as young Vito in The Godfather Part II<\/p>\n

The Godfather: Part II splits its narrative along two timelines: first, the rise of Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro<\/a>) in Italy as he takes his first steps into the Mafia. De Niro\u2019s award-winning performance shows the struggle of the future Don as he tries to do right by his family when life keeps kicking him down. When we first met Vito, as played by Marlon Brando in the original, he was confident and in control, ruling an empire, but as we learn in the sequel, it\u2019s an empire doomed to fall.<\/p>\n

Vito\u2019s sons, Michael (Al Pacino<\/a>) and Fredo (John Cazale), struggle to hold onto the Corleone\u2019s top spot in the Mafia amid assassination attempts and a traitor from within the family. While Vito\u2019s story is about building an empire, Michael\u2019s is about the struggle to hold onto one, and you can see how the sons of an immigrant are losing touch with their homeland. The Godfather: Part II\u00a0is, at its heart, a story about the immigrant experience, which also happens to be the movie that defined crime movies for decades.<\/p>\n

Defining A Genre\"al<\/p>\n

Al Pacino as Michael in The Godfather Part II<\/p>\n

Impressively, The Godfather Part II earned $93 million worldwide in 1974, which is unadjusted for inflation, which means 50 years later, Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s masterpiece outgrossed Borderlands<\/a>. At the time of its release, the sequel\/prequel was slammed by critics for being overly slow, and no less a critic than Roger Ebert slammed the dual-narrative. It didn\u2019t take long, though, for the film to be rightly recognized as a landmark achievement in movie history, to the point that not even Megalopolis could diminish the legend of Coppola.<\/p>\n

Every Mafia movie that has come after The Godfather Part II is standing on the shoulders of a giant. The Sopranos<\/a> owes it a debt for building off of Michael\u2019s story, Boardwalk Empire contains echoes of Vito\u2019s struggle to build his Empire, and even the legendary Goodfellas pulls from the tragedy of Fredo. Few films are so successful that they define an entire genre, but that\u2019s exactly what Coppola\u2019s magnum opus has achieved.<\/p>\n

The luxurious pacing of The Godfather Part II sticks out even more today in the era of rapid-fire mini-climaxes every 20 minutes. It isn\u2019t a weakness, though; it\u2019s a strength, because when you give the film all of your attention, each and every detail, every subtle interaction, every inflection of De Niro and Pacino carries weight and meaning. Francis Ford Coppola<\/a> is one of the greatest directors in history, The Godfather is one of the greatest films in history, and yet, its sequel is required viewing by everyone who has even a passing interest in crime cinema.<\/p>\n

The Godfather Part II<\/a> is now streaming for free on Pluto TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask anyone on the street to name the greatest movie of all time, and you\u2019ll get a wide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,129167,409,111,139,69,59125,62189,200881],"class_list":{"0":"post-387894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-marlon-brando","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-robert-de-niro","15":"tag-the-godfather","16":"tag-vito-corleone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}