"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2013)

I didn't care much for this film when I first saw it, but I watched it today from a different perspective. I put the continuity of the first two pictures out of my mind as best as possible, and tried to watch "Godfather III" as a stand alone movie. Not entirely possible of course, but you get what I'm saying. After all this time, the film holds up pretty well, as the aging Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) tries to take the family business legitimate by cashing out the casinos and racketeering ventures. The business with the European conglomerate Immobiliare got a bit too intricate, but the tie-in with the Roman Catholic Church and the historical reference to the death of Pope John Paul I was an interesting story element.
What I liked about Michael Corleone was the way he kept his character subdued while plotting his next move. The contrast Andy Garcia provides as nephew Vincent Manicini is a polar opposite to Michael, just like his hot headed father Sonny who's quick temper got him killed in the first installment of the franchise. Vincent watches and learns, and capably fills in as the new head of the Corleone Family when Michael takes ill.
If there's an issue I would take with the picture, it would be the drawn out opera scene that drags the resolution of the story in the final act. I think back to the brilliant revenge sequence of the original Godfather, and this one was somewhat anti-climactic in comparison, though for shock value, the death of Mary Corleone (Sofia Coppola) was a twist I think most viewers wouldn't have expected.
As an aside, and basically unrelated to the story per se, the opening scene with that shot of the World Trade Center had me doing some quick math, and while this film came out in 1990, the Twin Towers would only survive the picture by a mere decade, and now another decade has gone by since then. Putting things all in perspective, it really boggles the mind.