OK, now it looks like I need to save this thread from the gutter.

I think people don't like Part III for primarily one reason and that is -- it's too modern.

An Elvis Costello song is featured in the movie. Most of the Godfather movie fans were alive during the time it took place -- they remember that time period well. There's no mystique or myth about it.

Whereas Parts I and some of Part II took place during the golden age of America, when things were always viewed as better, Part III set the movie in the late 70's. Nothing golden about that... unless it was sequence or leisure suits.

I'm willing to bet that if Duvall and Ryder were in the movie instead of Hamilton and Coppola, people would still have a beef with Part III because it took place in a modern world.

And this is something that people might not openly admit to, but it does play a part in their not liking it. Some where sub-concious. In the back of their minds.

That and some of the acting was bad and the plot too confusing.

But overall, I think this movie deserves a solid *** review, out of ****.

I mean come on, some people have given some baaaad movies *** and part III is much better than that crap. It's ambitious like I said, where as other *** movies revel in their own stink.