Holy crap. This just in from a legitimate source: The Godfather 4 is coming to theaters sometime in 2010. Word has it that Francis Ford Coppola has already penned the script, and the movie is currently in the pre-production phase. It is rumored that Al Pacino will return, though the film will focus heavily on a new character played by Nicolas Cage, who as we all know is related in some way or form, by blood or otherwise, to the famed director. This is amazing news.
However, that news is not real. What is real, however, is that a new DVD set was released today called The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration, which includes the three films remastered and with all-new special effects a la the Star Wars re-releases (it’s pretty crazy seeing Marlon Brando in The Godfather Part III, let me tell you). The collection contains five massive discs of goodness. You can probably guess what the first three discs are used for - the last two are saved for special features, and there are a lot of them.
One of the things I find frustrating by being a movie reviewer, other than constantly receiving free DVDs and invitations to LA press screenings, is that in these renewed box sets that exist solely to make the studio just a little more money by duping die hard fans into buying the latest and greatest version when the DVD they bought five years ago is just as good, the new features and old features are rarely separated. So when I actually take the time to review bonus features - which is not that often because I think most bonus features are a waste of time - I have no clue whether these features have been available for years unless I manage to find the info on Amazon.com or something like that… but the extra ten keystrokes is just more effort than I’m willing to spend.
Thankfully, with The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration, disc four includes special features previously available, whereas disc five is exclusively designed for new bonus featuers. In other words, for review purposes, I skipped disc four and went straight to disc five.
I didn’t make it very far, though. I was building a dresser while watching, and I tried watching the deleted scenes, of which there are many (they are broken out by the chronology of the characters, not the movies). Unfortunately, there’s no “Play All” feature that I could find, and thus it wasn’t worth my time clicking on each thumbnail to watch a deleted scene. So… I moved on to the behind-the-scenes videos, and started watching one of them. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was good. Real good. The video features interviews with practically everyone involved in the movie, and goes into thorough detail about the challenges of making the film - primarily, the fact that Coppola and Pacino were always two seconds away from getting fired. The video is extremely detailed and interesting, and one of the best I’ve seen.
There were many other special features, but that’s as far as I got. Why? Because after watching 45 minutes of behind-the-scenes action, I couldn’t resist but put in the first movie. Having never seen it before, I thought now was as good of time as any. OK, I’ve actually seen The Godfather at least ten times (is that all?), but these movies - yes, even the third one - are so incredible it’s hard to believe they were made so long ago. Absolutely stunning.
The Godfather trilogy consists of three of the best movies ever made. This new DVD set includes a ton of new features that are, I hate to say it, worth owning if you really like your Italian gangsters.
Tags: dvd, dvd box set, godfather 4, godfather trilogy
Category: DVD Releases, Reviews | Comments RSS
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September 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I’ll wait till its comes out on dvd or video
November 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Your review is boring, it’s mainly your attempt at humor. I can imagine the main thing you find frustrating about being a movie reviewer is writing good reviews. I thought the point of reviewing these DVD’s was to let consumers know what they are getting into, even when given a free item you admit that you can’t take the time to go through the disk to give people a good overview of the product, I can’t believe your getting paid for this if you even are, did I stumble on a college kids blog site? If the difference is the special features and the a couple of special affects shouldn’t you check them out? I mean they gave it to you for free to do just that, feels lazy to me, thank God-father they separated the disk for you to make it easy. Let me guess you wanted to be a novelist but didn’t see it worth your time to find out where to purchase the idiot’s guide to writing on Amazon.com Consequently they are filming the Godfather part 4 the first scene will be filmed with you being taken out in a hail of gunfire.
November 6th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
First off, this was not the greatest of reviews. Unlike some people, I don’t have 10 hours to devote to watching every special feature on a DVD. I actually have a day job and then come home, have a stack of DVDs to watch, have to do work on this website… I also actually have friends who I like to socialize with from time to time.
That’s fine if you don’t like my review; there’s no need for you to return to the site. But as clever as your statement about the idiot’s guide to writing on Amazon.com is, it serves no purpose other than to show that you actually spent the time to write a long paragraph to try to ridicule me. I have better things to do, yet I feel obliged to respond. If I read something that I think sucks, I just go away - I don’t feel the need to bash the author.
Thanks for reading the entire post.