This Bro-Favorite Movie Has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes Score, But I Think It’s Garbage

PUREWOW ^ | Mar 20, 2025 | Marissa Wu

[nickcarraway]

Yes, The Godfather may be popular among people who pick My Way every time they do karaoke, but it is popular among a lot of people. I know my mother watches it every time it's on TV, several times a year.

I think Kay has agency. She looked the other way when she wanted to, then she didn't when she stopped wanting to. Connie had the freedom to marry that bum, even when everyone knew it was a bad idea.

[nickcarraway]

Weren’t you just saying this?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The Godfather was a fine movie, but it came out in a decade filled with great movies. I don’t consider it the best movie of the decade - it may not even be in the top 10 for the ‘70s.

[Fledermaus]

Women don’t get it.

I worked with a young woman who had never watched it.

I loaned her my DVD box of all 3.

She gave them back and said, “must be a men’s thing”.

[Fledermaus]

Name better ones.

[Tell It Right]

IMHO, the problem can be expectations.

If you're watching The Godfather for the first time, contemporary expectations of a mafia movie might make you let down if you expect it to have wall-to-wall gunslinging drive-by's up and down main street every 5 or 10 minutes. It's not the persistent adrenaline rush that Hollywood has portrayed the mafia like in movies since The Godfather.

[BenLurkin]

This has got to be some kind of joke.

Nobody could be that stupid.

[Mean Daddy]

I’ve watched the Godfather I & II probably several times and every time, noticed something new. I finally purchase the book and that helped fill a lot of gaps in the movie. I would recommend anyone who has never seen it to read the book first and either rent it or watch whenever its on TV uncut, uninterrupted.

Regarding Diane Keaton, easily the most overrated actor in the movie. I cringe every time her character appears on screen.

[Sirius Lee]

As if I care what a woman thinks - go make me a sammich.

[nickcarraway]

Like I said, my mother repeatedly watches it several times a year, more than I do.

I was lucky enough to see the first two in a theater about 15 years ago.

I am also one of those people who thought the first one was better than the second one. When I finally saw The Conversation, which Coppola made in between 1 and 2, I thought that was as good also. RIP Gene Hackman.

[Fledermaus]

Strange movie. Spooky.

Kind of remade with Will Smith. Enemy of the State?

[FLT-bird]

This review reeks of toxic femininity.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Name better ones.

Taxi Driver.
Chinatown.
Godfather Part II.
The Exorcist.
Alien.
Blazing Saddles.

Just to name a few off the top of my head.

[BenLurkin]

Miss Wu, this buds for yu

[nickcarraway]

Interesting. I generally prefer movies made earlier than the 70's. But I'm not sure what movie I'd put over Godfather and The Conversation. Something like Chinatown had potential, but the cheesy ending kind of took it down a peg. Which ones would you put up there?

[simpson96]

The author actually put a lot of time (and effort?) into writing a silly article.

And it was published.

Things ain't what they used to be.

[TalBlack]

Marissa Wu writes here like every mother who just watched her teenage son’s favorite movie. Her piece is unintentionally funny. I was literally chuckling as I read. Miss Wu demonstrates yet again that Feminists can’t see past themselves.

[Fledermaus]

Blazing Saddles? Funny but greater than Godfather?

Ok

I like II fine. A little darker and deeper and the plot was confusing some.

The Exorcist was so scary.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

With a 97% rating, an awful lot of women “get it”. I guess a few women don’t get it.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I didn't read past "I'll admit that I'm often the first to roll my eyes and say, ugh, men.