(stares up from trunkless head, sticks tongue out and blows raspberry) I liked Godfather I and II, I love Goodfellas, but I just could not get into Once Upon a Time in America.
LOL!!! But seriously. I wonder if you saw the wrong version. They made one that was shorter and more linear (apparenlty thinking American audiences wouldn't be able to sit through the original or figure out the time-line), and it really was the inferior version. For me, it's just one of those movies that I'll watch whenever it's on ... and, of course, I own it, too. James Woods does this thing in one scene with De Niro in which he blinks one eye a little slower than the the other and it's so deeply crazy that it just thrills me every time. What a GREAT bad guy. JMHO, natch ...
The English Patient. Amen. Boooooorrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnggggg...I can't believe it was made by the same guy who did Truly, Madly, Deeply (who recently passed, may he rest in peace).