Not in the same class...

Rating: 4/10 (16 December 2001)

This movie is not in the same class as the first two, and this is not because of poor Sophia Coppola, who actually does a decent job as a naive Mafia princess in denial. One of the strengths of the first two movies is that they stuck to events that actually could have happened. The helicopter machine-gunning of the penthouse meeting of Dons would never happen. Especially in Atlantic, where mobsters are at pains to be inconspicuous. The very public struggle of Michael for control of the Vatican-owned conglomerate would have been carried out by WASPy proxies, not a Corleone.
George Hamilton is surprisingly good as the mob mouthpiece. Diane Keaton is surprisingly irritating as the liberated Kay. Eli Wallach is absolutely awful as the deceitfully fawning Don Altobello. Coppola ought to be horse-whipped for allowing this veteran character actor to become a huge and unbelievable HAM in this picture.
Had there not been a I and II, this movie would have been mildly tolerable, but even the great performance by Pacino here cannot save this film from suffering severely by comparison to its two excellent ancestor films.