Search - The Godfather 3-movie Collection on DVD

Craig S. (InnerMacro) from WAUSAU, WI
Reviewed on 7/17/2024...

Everyone knows the Godfather, and its fundamental impact on the genre, so I'll skip that and focus on the two remaining movies. By the way, the remastering of the 1970s films is certainly impressive and brings back a lot of the luster, especially the historical sets.

Godfather II seems to be a repeat of the formula from the first one. A series of botched hits, followed by a climax where simultaneous hits occur in a masterfully orchestrated plan - one that seems almost dumb luck given the failures up to that point. I honestly do not understand how the Cuban revolutionaries know exactly where to go in the hospital to prevent the assassination - this scene makes no sense. Otherwise, there is some very well-done coverage of Cuba's history here, as well as early Vegas. Pacino seems about as emotionless as he did in the first film, and also fairly naive at times. All things considered, about as good as sequels usually are, although the DeNiro story would have been better on its own as a separate movie - too long.

Number III is just not very good. The worst aspect is how quickly Vincent gains the confidence of the Don. I mean, we have nearly three hours to work with in the movie for character development, yet Garcia's rise to being the new Don seems completely rushed and unrealistic. Instead, incredibly long and irrelevant scenes pad this one out, and still manage to make the whole Immobiliare plot confusing and underdeveloped as well. When one sums the three movies together and reviews Michael Corleone's capabilities as a mob boss, he seems to have succeeded in spite of himself. For this reason, I recommend sticking with the first movie, and maybe checking out the second one if you have interests in the Cuban revolution and the development of Vegas Casinos.

The star rating is mostly based on the first movie, as things go downhill from there. Kudos to Puzo and Coppola for defining the genre, but some of these sequels have aged poorly in light of contemporaries.

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