A good movie, despite a few bad elements...

Rating: Null/10 (6 February 2004)

..."The Godfather: Part III" is the last movie in one of the best (or the best) dramatic trilogies of all time. As many already know, this one focuses solely on Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and his struggles for the Corleone family to become legitimate (he's been longing for so since the first film). Many bad things happen, including a corrupt Archbishop (Donal Donelly) and hotshot enemy Joey Zasa (Joe Mentegna). Helping Michael is Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia, in what may be his best performance) and sister Connie (Talia Shire).
Of course, this isn't on the same level as the first two. There are many bad elements in the writing and some in the acting. For one thing, Puzo and Coppola really seemed to love making references to the first two films, most of which are unnecessary. Example: at one point Michael shows his son (Franc D'Ambrosio) the very same picture that he drew as a child in Part II. This had very little relevance to the plot, and put it this way, if this small part hadn't been included in Part II, do you think a similar scene would be written for III? I think no.
The acting, well, it has it's ups and downs. Pacino does well as always, but it's his worst performance of the trilogy. As many say, Sophia Coppola is "terrible" and "awful". Now, she's not by any means good, but I'd say the worst performance comes from both Mentegna (who never changes his facial expression or the tone of his voice) and D'Ambrosio. What was with D'Ambrosio's song? It was like "The Godfather: The Music Video".
There is some very good acting too though. As I said, Garcia does incredibly well. The way he acts, he sells the character perfectly. Also, Donnelly does a creepily good job. An underrated and very well-done performance is Eli Wallach's as the cunning Don Altobella. The man was seventy-five when he did this film, and yet he has so much energy and life. If Strasberg and Gazzo can be nominated for Part II, Wallach sure as hell can be for this one (not to mention he's been deserving since "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly").
The direction is also fine. Coppola's use of still cam and tan shading is admirable. The ending shots are flawless.
So, not the greatest film of the trilogy, far from it, but still quite enjoyable, 8/10.