Coda

Last night I watched Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.  Which is really just a re-cut version of Godfather Part III with a new overly long name, and which was released just last year.  Now I have seen the original Godfather III, but it was a long time ago and it must have been so bad that I have kind of erased it from my memory.  So does this version fix the mess?  In a word, no.  It's so difficult to judge this film when it is preceded by 2 masterpieces in the The Godfather and the Godfather Part II.  But I haven't seen either of these for a while (and watching this has made me really want to re-watch them just to see how good this genre can be done), so I think I can somewhat judge this film on it's own merits.  And it just doesn't cut it for me.  It's not particularly engrossing, not particularly memorable, and regrettably Sofia Coppola's awful performance has not been erased from the film.  I had forgotten that this was the Godfather film with the quote "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" - so at least it has one positive going for it.  But overall, just a surprisingly average movie.   And this re-cut version does nothing to dispel that overwhelming feeling of disappointment and that it could have and should have been so much better.   2.5 stars.