As the years have gone by and AMC plays The Godfather on a constant loop, there has developed a sort of common wisdom that this film is as good or some even contend - better than the first.

This is simply not the case on either count.

There are come wonderful aspects to this film - namely the emergence of Robert De Niro, the 1910's New York City tenement scenes, the depictions of old rural Italy and some great acting from Al Pacino, John Cazale and Robert Duvall.

This film was automatically at a disadvantage from the first with no Marlon Brando, James Caan, Richard Conte and Sterling Hayden - four great actors, A fifth - Richard Castellano, is the greatest loss on the film because it is a self-inflicted wound due to a dispute over money and allegedly dialogue- so Clemenza is sloppily erased from the story with some confusing tale which we won't go into.

So this movie is at at a loss of five great actors to start with and picks up one monumental discovery in De Niro who on his own nearly makes this great to warch. The bad guy of the film - Italian actor Gastone Moschin essentially replaces the original bad guy Al Lettieri (who famously dies in the original) in a piece of good acting.

Hyman Roth, a Jewish mobster partly based around the story of Meyer Lansky (like most of the subjects in these movies these men are loose composites drawing from different characters). Roth is played by Lee Strasberg - a great acting teacher who developed the method style of acting deployed by Brando, Pacino and De Niro - but not the greatest actor.

Roth has some memorable lines and it is a good performance by Strasberg but the character is really nothing like Lansky's actual character and the film takes a lot of liberties with this storyline which is far from the truth and ends up really muddying the script in some nutty premise which is not believable. I won't give anything away, but Lansky never did half of the things that are suggested here. But his greatest line is about Moe Greene (loosely based as a composite of Bugsy Siegel).

Apparently, director Francis Ford Coppola wanted James Cagney to play Roth's part but perhaps Cagney didn't like what Coppola did with the character.

Fans of the show Sopranos may be interested to know that Roth's lieutenant Johnny Ola is played by Dominic Chianese who played Tony's uncle Junior.

The dialogue is not up to par with the first. Some of the scenes are more for show and effect and impression than substance.

There are a number of holes in the storyline which are not properly resolved.

There is a quick appearance by the late Danny Aiello.

Bruno Kirby makes a good impression in one of his earliest roles.

Michael Gazzo does an adequate job as essentially Clemenza/Richard Castellano's replacement but it always feels like he is a replacement player.

Pacino's new (and old) bodyguard seems completely out of place the entire time.

Diane Keaton and Talia Shire are good in returning roles. Keaton has a memorable showdown with Pacino.

All in all this is a great movie, and it is darker than the first - in some ways much darker. Most of its greatness lies in the back story that is told in the flashback scenes.