The Godfather: Part III (1990)

The first two Godfather films were masterpieces in film making. Both had things that made them great, in the first in was Marlon Brando and in the second it was Robert De Niro. The two films were stylish and were engaging. I think part two is better than part one but its not the wildest line of thinking ever. I have never heard a good word said about part three, never. I was hoping that it was going to be mediocre and thought that I would find something in it that would make me say that it wasn’t that bad. Sadly I cant because this film is terrible. I don’t really know why it was made aside from the fact that Coppola needed to make some money for Paramount but this is an awful piece of movie making and tarnishes the good name of the previous two films. The problems are many.

Firstly and is Sofia Coppola. Now she was a late replacement for Winona Ryder but quite frankly you could have got a bucket with a smiley face on it and you would have got a similar if not better performance. She is just terrible and delivers her lines like badly. Secondly the lack of anything happening. Stuff happens but nothing really happens, you never get the sense of Michael’s empire, you just get a sense that we are seeing someone who is reaching the end of his life and even that isn’t done particularly well. There is no real sense of scale and for me that’s a problem. Another problem is that Andy Garcia is meant to be replacing Michael but I just didn’t find him to be as good. He just seemed to be a mirror image of Al Pacino in the first Godfather film.

The film drags its heals badly and at 162 minutes it’s the shortest of the films but feels like it’s the longest because of the tedious nature of the film. I must say that the final 10-15 minutes were enjoyable and easily the best part of the film but I just think that it’s a long way to go for something that if it were in the other films wouldn’t have stood out but because everything in this film is way below par it then becomes the best thing. The Godfather Part 3 is a film that doesn’t leave you feeling the same way that you would about a dumb Adam Sandler film or Will Ferrell film but it just leaves you feeling disappointed, disappointed that after to fantastic films were end the trilogy with this dull, unimaginative and ultimately badly judged film.