The Godfather Saga, the two best films ever made and are my number 1 favorite films and film series of all time. What's not to like about these films. The story is epic, tragic, emotional and takes gangster films to a whole new level. The film also has great characters, a wonderful cast of great actors, a beautiful score, memorable scenes, lines and violence, and of course an epic ending. Both films together won 9 Oscars, including Best Picture (For both films) and best actor and supporting actor to Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro for playing Vito Corleone, which in an ironic twist none of the actors were present to except their award. This was a great Saga and defiantly ended the series well. However, in 1990 when Paramount studio was in trouble Coppola made a third Godfather film.
First off, what's there to continue, the last film had a great ending. Michael flashes back to the Corleone Family back in the good old days. We see Sonny before he was killed joking around and losing his temper; we see an up and coming Tom Hagan; Carlo when he was close friends with Sonny; an innocent Connie before she got abused and started acting like a whore; Tessio before he turned into a traitor; Fredo the only one in the family supporting Mike before he gets killed by Michael; and of course Michael as the innocent college kid he was before he became a cold blooded Don. The last scene in the film is Michael sitting in his chair outside his house as the winter slowly approaches again, with a face of both evil and guilt, he's still wearing his wedding ring after he divorced Kay and after the camera slowly and quietly zooms on him, we hear the music and see the credits roll. That's a tragic and great cap to this Saga. The trailer also said that the film is the "Final Chapter" and boy do I wish it was. The Trailer for the third movie shows clips of the first two films and when I saw the 3rd film on TV it shows almost a 10 minute montage of the first two films with alternate shots of Michael sitting alone. When a film or trailer starts out with a long montage of clips from the previous films instead of showing where the film left off or just starting the new story, already you know you're in for a huge disappointment and this film is a disappointment, I give you my review on...
It's 1979 and Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is in his old age trying to be legitimate, however just when he thought he was out, the Mafia pulls him back in. Michael is also trying to rebuild his relationship with Kay (Diane Keaton). Sonny's illegitimate son Vincent (Andy Garcia) is rising through the ranks to be the next Don, but he's in love with his cousin Mary who's Michale's daughter (Sophia Coppola). Our plot already is very weak and uninteresting. The plot also focuses a lot more on the history of the Vatican, the pope and politics than our tragic character. Oh, and the whole forbidden love between the cousins, I can't believe they decided to go that route. The only part of the plot that interested me is Michael and Kay that's it, but even that was corny and forced.
Remember how powerful the acting was in the first two films and how you see them as the characters instead of being actors, the acting here is so corny, so over dramatic and so bad that I can't believe that this is the same cast, even the characters suck now. Connie (Talia Shire) is now involved in the family business and helps kill people, that feels very foreign for how sudden of a change it is; Andy Garcia as Sonny's illegitimate son feels like he's from a different movie and on top of it does a poor job hiding his Spanish accent; Richard Bright as Corleone hitman Al Neri shows up very little; Sophia Coppola is the Jar Jar Binks of the film (In other words her acting is so bad that she's one of the many reasons why the film stinks); Al Martino poorly lip syncs a song as the great singer Johnny Fontane; Kay is really bland in this film; and Robert Duvall is not in this film as Tom Hagen, so instead we get a bland replacement legal advisor played by George Hamilton. The only one trying is Al Pacino and granted he has some good scenes, such as his famous line, his scenes with Kay, and moaning at the grave of a friend, but he still comes across as bad as everyone else. Oh, and the make up they put on him is laughable and is hard to take him seriously in that Halloween costume, and to think that this is the same filmmaker who made Marlon Brando look like a frail old man.
We had great enemies who were a great threat to the family but the enemies here are so bland and so nonthreatening that they got nothing compared to Barzini or Roth. Our main villain Don Altobello (Eli Wallach) is so boring and uninteresting that he can put you to sleep. Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna) is would I like to call the weak version of Sollozzo, he's not threatening or intimidating, he's just there to be a comical asshole. Mosca the assassin and his son who makes donkey noises are probably one of the less threatening assassins you'd ever see; not to mention the fact that this is supposed to be the greatest assassin of all time. As for the other characters like the Archbishop and Don Lucchesi are just plain terrible, boring and forgettable.
What about the action for you gangster fans. While looking cool, it doesn't feel like something you'd see in a "Godfather film" or heck not even in a gangster film either. You got a scene when Vincent takes out two thugs that looks like something you'd see in a Bond flick. A Helicopter that kills the Dons in a meeting which looks like something from a cliched action film. There's a hit during a festival while Vincent is disguised as a cop to get close to his target, which is a bad rehash from the first two films. The hits themselves feel very anti climatic. There's also tons of dumb moments during the deaths. Vincent kills a victim by making a lame pun out of the guy's name; one Don dies by trying to save his lucky coat; and one enemy gets stabbed in the neck by his own glasses. Yes, this all happening in a Godfather film. I sometimes swear that I'm looking at a different film. Speaking of swearing, there's more F bombs and curse words than what the first 2 films had, already it doesn't feel like a Godfather film. I also don't feel like we're in the 70s, it feels like we're in 1990.
WARNING:SPOILERS ON THIS PARAGRAPH!
Remember how I talked about the ending to the 2nd film and is personally what I consider is the last film. The ending to this film sucks. The assassin gets killed, but fires twice before dying. One bullet hits Michael and the other bullet hits Mary in the chest. Mary says her last word in a very badly acted death, Michael makes a very weird and over the top sad face before screaming and everyone's crying. We then cut to a short and pointless montage of Michael dancing with the woman he lost as "Intermezzo" plays, and the last scene we see is Michael (In even worse make-up) sitting and dying alone which is very laughable instead of sad.
Overall the film doesn't come near as good as the Saga. However, I do like it's memories and even poor references to the Saga. I like the cinematography and to be honest, I can tell they're at least trying to make a good film, if it does fail. Some Godfather fans seem to love it, while others dismiss it. I dismiss this film and I bet it was only nominated for those Oscars cause it's "The Godfather". Still, this is a film people will either love or hate.
RATING 3/5
As for my rating on the Trilogy. First two gold, but gets a 4/5 because of the 3rd film. Screw the Trilogy and just see the Saga.
No comments:
Post a Comment