Embarrassingly bad in some respects

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2006)

The flaws in this picture are well-known but I'll start with some other noticeable, less mentioned incongruities: why does Talia Shire's character Connie all of a sudden has a heavy Brooklyn accent in contrast to the first 2 films? Her accent sounded terribly out of place and was a distraction. Coppola should have corrected this. Also, I noticed a lot of double-breasted suits and longish hair on some male characters. I don't remember this style as being popular in the late 70's---more like the time around when the film was made. One more: the gratuitously violent "hit" scene in Atlantic City. That was something more akin to an B-movie action director rather than a great auteur like Coppola who I consider to be a modern-day Orson Welles in many respects. Coppola's body of work (i.e. "Tucker" and "The Cotton Club") will one day be appreciated just like Welles' work is finally getting its recognition. Unfortunately the appreciation usually happens when you're dead. Another misstep, in my opinion, were the constant flashback scenes from the previous films. I mean--everyone knows these by heart by now. There was no need to show these flashbacks--unless they were meant as filler.
Now for the major mistakes: Robert Duvall's absence hurt badly. Duvall allegedly told Coppola: "Let's be honest, this is not about art. It's about money," which was obviously true. Why didn't they just pay Duvall the money? Because of Duvall's absence, the script was overhauled. I am curious what the film would have been like had Duvall accepted. Despite his absence, George Hamilton did a very nice job as the Corleone's WASP lawyer (an interesting side note: maybe Coppola thought that the final product would be better since Robert Castellano was supposed to be in Part II, but asked for too much money and was written out of the script. A fascinating tidbit was that Castellano was the highest paid actor in "The Godfather").
My apologies to Coppola about the flack he tolerated about his daughter's inclusion in this film and her "performance." But let's be real, Andy Garcia falling for her? And speaking of bad acting, Eli Wallach should be tried in court for the most egregious crime of overacting. I think the long layoff after Godfather Part II made Coppola's casting skills atrophy a bit, not unlike George Lucas's casting mistakes a few years later in the Star Wars prequels.
Even more painful than Soffia's addition was the lousy dialogue, especially between Michael and Kay. Every attempt was made to "hit the home run" and give her the one-line zingers that were quite frankly painfully embarrassing to watch.
I think it's a shame because the nucleus of the film--about corruption in the Vatican and the possible murder of a pope was very intriguing and done properly, this could have been a great film. Unfortunately it could only be called fair at best.