7. The Godfather Part II
Sure to be the most divisive entry on this list, there's no denying that The Godfather is a cinematic masterpiece and quite possibly the greatest movie ever made. It's also at least equally possible, if not more so, that The Godfather Part II is the greatest movie ever made, because it somehow achieved the staggering feat of managing to imbue the travails of a crime family with even more pathos, emotion and drama than the first film. Though the presence of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is sorely missed after his demise at the end of the first film, Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo find a genius way to continue his legacy, by paralleling Vito's rise as a youngster (played superbly by Robert De Niro) with Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) reluctant taking over of his father's empire in the present. The result is pure movie magic, heading towards a shattering climax in which Michael takes a drastic decision to ensure his future, a shocking moment out on a lake that is forever etched into the mind of anyone who watches it. When the second film is
this good, it's not really a surprise that the third film couldn't in any way live up to it.