THE GODFATHER CODA: THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE
Cert 15 ★ ★ ★
In cinemas this weekend, on Blu- ray and digital from Tuesday
“The only wealth in this world is children,” says Michael Corleone at the beginning of Francis Ford Coppola’s renamed and recut version of The Godfather Part III. “More than all the money and power on earth.”
It was precisely this sentiment that did for the original film in 1990.
The first two epics, both classics of 1970s’ cinema, were always going to be tough acts to follow. But it was Coppola’s casting of his non- actor daughter as Michael’s daughter Mary that attracted the most criticism.
Sofia Coppola’s wooden performance hasn’t got any better with age, but I don’t
think that’s the main problem with this new version. Coppola’s silly new title, new opening, rejigged ending and hard- to- spot trims don’t make the melodramatic plot any more credible.
Here, Michael wants to make his business legitimate and has hatched a plot to collude with the Pope to take over a Vatican- controlled company and become the world’s richest man.
But just when he thinks he’s out, he gets pulled back in by a feud involving his nephew Vincent ( Andy Garcia) and Joey Zasa ( Joe Mantegna) – the vile mobster who controls his old Little Italy territory.
Al Pacino is far better than I remembered, bringing a brooding sadness and flashes of humour to this hollowed- out old mobster.
But the killings border on self- parody. I still can’t decide which hit is the most unlikely: death by attack helicopter, death by spectacles or death by cream horn.