The Godfather, Part III (Final Director's Cut) (1990) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have seen this film several times, all the way through or in parts. Frankly, I have mixed emotions about it because, when discussing it, I want to be fair and focus on it as a discrete film, judging it on its own terms; however, for me at least, that is impossible because it is the third of three Godfather films and its two predecessors are masterpieces. I cannot exclude vivid memories of scenes and even comments from films I first saw 18 and then 14 years before seeing this one for the first time in 1990. OK, that's my challenge. I finally decided to try to rate it on its own terms, hence the Three Stars. What it has going for it includes Pacino's talent, several plausible conflicts, brilliant cinematography, and a tone of melancholy which is consistent throughout the narrative. After years of broken promises to wife Kay (Diane Keaton), Michael has almost completed a process by which to extricate himself and his family from organized crime. However, his marriage has ended, mortal enemies remain such as Altobello (Eli Wallach) and Joey Zaza (Joe Montegna), his negotiations with the Vatican encounter unexpected complications, and finally, his physical health is poor as pressures and tensions in his life intensify. It is no wonder that he suffers a diabetic attack in his kitchen ("Just when I think I'm out....") from which he never fully recovers.
However, the film has several problems. One concerns the lack of a primary plot to give the narrative cohesion. There are hundreds of individual episodes in The Godfather and Godfather Part II (as in other films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago) but they are coordinated effectively. Not so of the episodes in this film. Sofia Coppola's performance as Mary Corleone has been savaged by most critics. In fact, she is reputed to be a late replacement for Wynona Rider, had no prior acting experience in films, and was given a role as trivial as Anne Archer's in the three Jack Ryan films. I will not join others in bashing her. Another of the film's flaws is director Coppola and the three screenwriters' failure to do more with the role of Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia). So many missed opportunities as Garcia's great talents are under-utilized, especially when on-screen with his obviously exhausted Uncle Michael. The illegitimate son of Santino ("Sonny") Corleone, Vincent is only occasionally allowed to show some of his father's passion, providing energy which this film desperately needs and otherwise lacks.
The jumpy plot and underdeveloped characters are, in my opinion, this film's major weakness but it has several fine moments as when Vincent challenges Zaza, when Michael meets with Cardinal Lamberto (Raf Vallone), the deadly sequence as the performance in the opera house proceeds to its conclusion, and the final scene when Michael reflects upon his empty life. Judged only on its own terms, Three Stars. Let's all hope that there will be no Part IV.

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Item Name: The Godfather, Part III (Widescreen Edition); Studio:Paramount

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The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration Giftset (The Godfather / The Godfather Part II / The Godfather Part III) Review

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(More customer reviews)For those crying for the "Godfather Saga"/"Godfather Epic" versions, you are missing the point. Restoration expert Robert Harris (and countless others) worked for over a year from the best available print materials (as the original negatives are badly damaged and faded) to restore the first and second films to their original theatrical glory, which is something these iconic films of American Cinema deserve. That is the point of restoration.
If you are looking for a "wow" disc to show off your Blu-ray home theater sound and video, this is not it. If you are looking to experience modern American Gangster cinema in its 1970's glory, this is as close as you are ever likely to get, muted sepia-esque color, film grain and all.
These were not done exclusively for the home market. The priority was that they were restored for theatres, because that is where they would be judged the most critically, and all indications are that they do not disappoint. Never watch these films in your living room with the lights on. Watch them like you do in the theater, lights out, to appreciate the effort that went into these films.

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THE GODFATHER: Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather (1972) is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Marines to fight in World War II, has returned a captain and a war hero. Having long ago rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his sister, Connie (Talia Shire), with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest brother, Sonny (James Caan), and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to exact revenge on the men responsible. After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl, Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels.
THE GODFATHER PART II: This brilliant companion piece to the original The Godfather continues the saga of two generations of successive power within the Corleone family. Coppola tells two stories in Part II: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito, played with uncanny ability by Robert De Niro, and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the talents who helped make The Godfather, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, and undeniably the best sequel ever made. Robert De Niro won an Oscar®; the film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1974.
THE GODFATHER PART III: One of the greatest sagas in movie history continues! In this third film in the epic Corleone trilogy, Al Pacino reprises the role of powerful family leader Michael Corleone. Now in his 60's, Michael is dominated by two passions: freeing his family from crime and finding a suitable successor. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)... but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. Francis Ford Coppola directs Pacino, Garcia, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Eli Wallach, Sofia Coppola, Joe Montegna and others in this exciting, long-awaited film that masterfully explores the themes of power, tradition, revenge and love. Seven Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture.

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Righteous Kill (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Two veteran cops, Turk and Rooster (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino) work to solve a string of murders in which the victims are criminals that they have previously arrested and have been acquitted of their crimes. Something's seems a bit fishy, at least that's what two younger cops, Detectives Riley and Perez (Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo) start to think. Furthermore, they suspect it's a cop. Anyway you splice it, the decorated members of the NYPD are looking for a killer. One who leaves a bit of poetry at every scene and happens to murder the filth of society that has slipped through the cracks of the judicial system.
"Righteous Kill" is only a slightly above average thriller given the big name talent. De Niro and Pacino both put forth great performances; De Niro as the hot headed, do whatever it takes to get a conviction cop and Pacino as a much calmer, honest detective. It seems a bit cliché, the whole good cop bad cop, but nonetheless it worked well and the duo's performances were very well balanced to convey not just an occupational partnership, but also a friendship. While the film will leave the audience thinking they know all the answers within the first twenty minutes, the plot does take some interesting turns.
It's great to see the two legendary actors are still performing. "Righteous Kill" is not completely predictable nor is it unwatchable. Give it a try.

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Turk and Rooster, two aging NYPD detectives who have been longtime partners are faced with a serial killer who is murdering sociopathic criminals. They both have personal issues, and when they start working with a younger team, Perez and Riley, tensions between the pairs of partners is inevitable, especially since Turk is now living with Perez's ex-girlfriend, also a homicide detective.

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The Devil's Advocate (Snap Case) (1997) Review

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(More customer reviews)Here comes a sharp, strong-voiced New York city lawyer with a lot of experience complemented by rare physical and mental powers. Played by Al Pacino, John Milton is a loner who wins cases by ignoring what is and isn't "by the book". While in the process of establishing a law partner, Milton runs across hot shot Keanu Reeves, who is yet to lose. Reeves turns out to become the perfect missing piece to the puzzle for Pacino. His character spends a significant amount of time with his new law partner in business and pleasure circumstances, in order to indirectly let his new friend know him better, to find out who he really is. As time passes, tension between the two businessmen arises and Keanu, the perfect defender/convicter sees his life unfold to become a total nightmare.
"The Devils Advocate" has been compared to "The Firm", but "The Firm" is more drawn out and isn't in with the fantasy or horror genre. Al Pacino really shows his stuff in this, with a more than believable performance that features numerous profound monologues that are always mastered by this Italian legend. His costar, Keanu, hits the target for the first time, bringing genuine emotion and class to the table. Overall, "The Devil's Advocate" is very intriguing, extremely well acted with some impressive special effects. I found this movie to be one of the best of the 90s.

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Hotshot attorney accepts tempting offer from an elite New York law firm only to find himself fighting for his soul.Genre: SuspenseRating: RRelease Date: 7-SEP-2004Media Type: DVD

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The Recruit (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)Al Pacino may not be the most versatile actor in the world, but he is a good actor; and, he proves it in this movie.
Al plays a 'scout' for the CIA looking for a few good spies. He finds bartender and computer hacker extraordinaire (how's THAT for a double career) played by Colin Farrell. The first spy talent seems to be keeping your 5 o'clock shadow exactly the same throughout the entire movie. :)
Colin and several other spy wannabes are chosen and sent to a training camp called 'The Farm' where Colin meets a delicious recruit played by Bridget Moynahan (NOTE: calling them by their character names just slows me down). Bridget quickly learns the spy trait at crying at the drop of a hat.
Without blabbing off too much more of the storyline, Al gives Colin an assignment that prepares him quite well for the life of a CIA agent.
There are several plot twists in this movie but not so many that it gives you a migraine. About the only thing that does is the constant verbal reminder in the film that "nothing is as it seems".
Overall, great acting all around and very good action scenes. The PG-13 rating is well deserved since it isn't overly bloody or violent.. i.e. it isn't going to put an idea into your teenager to go out and do something stupid.
Movie warnings: almost but not quite nudity (backless Bridget in a shower scene), sex with WAY too many covers, and profanity (mostly by the audience complaining about the covers).
Is it worth seeing? For matinee prices, definitely. For evening prices, yes, if you're into thriller movies.
And, just like in the movie, "PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONES." :)

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Academy Award(R)-Winner Al Pacino (Best Actor, SCENT OF A WOMAN, 1991) and Colin Farrell (MINORITY REPORT) take you deeper into the CIA than you've ever been before in this action-packed psychological thriller. James Clayton (Farrell), one of the smartest graduates in the country, is just the person Walter Burke (Pacino) wants in the Agency. James quickly rises through the ranks and falls for Layla (Bridget Moynahan, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS), one of his fellow recruits. But just when James starts to question his role and his cat-and-mouse relationship with his mentor, Burke taps him to root out a mole. As the suspense builds in a maze of gripping twists and turns, there are only two things James can count on -- he can't trust anyone and nothing is as it seems. It's the ultimate CIA thriller with so many surprise plot twists, you'll want to watch it again and again.

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You Don't Know Jack (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)Once upon a time this film would have been released in theatres and this lead performance and maybe even Brenda Vaccaro's would have been nominated for Academy Awards. That is how good this film is, award worthy, notable for it's stellar execution and story, a standout for this year. Al Pacino's Jack Kevorkian is not his best work in a decade, as some have speculated. It is his best work since Angels in America (from 2003), also an HBO produced and presented film. He is as commanding in that amazing series as in this. Pacino has always been physically gifted as an actor; adept at expressing his emotions with his back or his head, his hands or his walk. I think his reputation as actor has suffered in the last twenty years because he moved away from using his body (essential to the art of acting) and compensated with his voice. In this context, this film is a return to form: Donnie Brasco, Carlito's Way, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, Dick Tracy, to name his best work since 1990.

You Don't Know Jack is an apt title for this film, because I was certainly aware of Jack Kevorkian growing up, knew he was an advocate and involved in euthanasia and that he went to prison, but I didn't know he was such an iconoclast; morbid, graphic and unapologetic painter, a musician, a bachelor and a civil disobedient. These characteristics add to his legend, and his stature as a doctor who seems to have taken his profession and life's work as something more than a path to prestige and wealth, which cannot be said of some doctors in truth and perhaps too many in reputation. The role of the physician in society is an aspect of the successful story told here.
The role of the politician and the collective social fears of death in our society are the other themes, and they too are well told.
Though Kevorkian is presented sympathetically, and his opponents are not; angry "Christians" in general and a politically vengeful D.A. specifically, it is ultimately his own folly that dooms him. This may speak to his bachelorhood, his unemployment at the outset of the film and his stubbornness at getting to the Supreme Court. But his ambitions are not clarified here, other than his humanism, which is made genuine in small moments as well as big.
I highly recommend this film. Al Pacino and Jack Kevorkian are in the center of it, and the other actors, particularly Vaccaro as his sister Margo, are excellent. Euthanasia is an issue brought to the forefront by Kevorkian, but his incarceration did not produce another advocate in his stead, and the issue has unfortunately fallen by the wayside. It is an important consideration, what power we have over ourselves when we are faced with imminent pain before our death. This film handles it incredibly well, and I hope it produces as much discussion and thought for you as it did for me.
Thanks.

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Angel of mercy… or murderous “Doctor Death"? Jack Kervorkian is one of the most polarizing figures in modern American history, a man whose passionate belief that people have the right to die has brought him both praise and vilification. Oscar®- and Emmy®-winning actor Al Pacino brings “Dr. Death" to life in an all-new HBO Films presentation: You Don’t Know Jack, directed by Oscar®-winner Barry Levinson.

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