Get Shorty (1995) - Sonnenfeld's Tinseltown flick is breezy fun

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Four stylish Hollywood stars in cool shades center this humorous poster for Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty

A Miami gangster goes to Hollywood to collect a debt, but then he has an idea for a movie and feels like sticking around. But in Hollywood someone is always waiting for their money...

Get Shorty is written by Scott Frank (Dead Again (1991)), based on the same-titled 1990 novel by Elmore Leonard (Bandits (1987)), and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld (The Adams Family (1991)).
Great stars like Rene Russo (Mr. Destiny (1990)), Danny DeVito (10 Items or Less (2006)) and James Gandolfini (She's So Lovely (1997)) elevate this amusing gangster-in-Tinseltown tale, and Sonnenfeld's stylishly firm and simultaneously light direction is ideally suited for the cocktail.

Related post:

Barry Sonnenfeld: Men in Black 3 (2012) - Third MiB-chapter entertains the suits and shades off of everyone!

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Reportedly 30.25 mil. $
Box office: 115.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.80 times its cost)
[Get Shorty was released 20 October (USA) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida from January - April 1995. The film opened #1 to a 12.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another 2 weekends and stayed in the top 5 another 2 weeks (#2-#5), grossing 72.1 mil. $ (62.6 % of the total gross). The film won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. F. Gary Gray directed the flop sequel Be Cool (2005) with returning stars John Travolta (Look Who's Talking (1989)) and DeVito. Sonnenfeld returned with Men in Black (1997). Travolta returned in Broken Arrow (1996); Gene Hackman (Lilith (1964)) in The Birdcage (1996)); Russo in Tin Cup (1996), and DeVito in Little Red Riding Hood (1995, TV movie) and theatrically in Matilda (1996). Get Shorty is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.72/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Shorty?

Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

 

1. The Descendants (2011) - Alexander Payne

2. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) - Chris Columbus
 

3. Stan & Ollie (2018) - Jon S. Baird

4. The Intouchables/Intouchables/Untouchable (2011) - Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

5. The Sessions (2012) - Ben Lewin  

6. A Serious Man (2009) - Ethan & Joel Coen

7. About Schmidt (2002) - Alexander Payne

8. The Magician/Ansiktet/The Face (1958) - Ingmar Bergman

9. The Great Day on the Beach/Den Store Badedag (1991) - Stellan Olsson

10. Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) - Stephen Frears

Chosen out of 122 titles labeled 'dramedy' or 'great dramedy'

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date      
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date          
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date    
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date   
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 


What do you think of the list?  
Which dramedies would make your personal Top 10?  

Gorky Park (1983) - Cool Hurt investigates murders in Apted's fine Cold War Moscow thriller

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A simple, elegant poster for Michael Apted's Gorky Park

Three dead bodies are found the snow of Moscow's Gorky Park with their faces peeled off. The city's most successful cop smells KGB on the case, but his investigation also points him towards an American.

Gorky Park is written by Dennis Potter (Tender Is the Night (1985, miniseries)), based on the same-titled 1981 novel by Martin Cruz Smith (The Indians Won (1970)), and directed by Michael Apted (The Triple Echo (1972)).
It is a great proponent of a crime thriller with plenty of local color colors. The film also gives its audience a feeling of the repression the people suffered under in the USSR.
William Hurt (Syriana (2005)) is excellent as our cop protagonist; Lee Marvin (The Killers (1964)) doesn't seem to actually act much, but he's there and it works. Also in the solid cast; Ian McDiarmid (Spooks (2004, TV-series)) as a morbid coroner.
Gorky Park is a cold-looking place and its score (by James Horner (Avatar (2009))) is very much of its time. But the film is full of suspense and action, and it has a showdown in Stockholm.

Watch a 4-minute scene from the film with Hurt and Marvin here

Cost: 6.5 mil. $
Box office: 15.8 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Uncertain - but at least a box office success (returned 2.43 times its cost in North America alone)
[Gorky Park was released 16 December (USA) and runs 123 minutes. Shooting took place in Glasgow, Scotland, Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden and in Moscow, then the USSR, from February - May 1983. Helsinki stood in for Moscow for most of the film, as the crew were denied permits to shoot there. The film opened #13 to a 1.2 mil. $ first weekend in 629 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #5, behind holdover hits Terms of Endearment, Silkwood, new release Reckless and holdover hit Never Cry Wolf. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not available. If it made a realistic 20-30 mil. $ worldwide it would rank as either a box office success or a big hit. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Apted returned with Firstborn (1984). Hurt returned in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985); Marvin in Dog Day (1984). Gorky Park is fresh at 75 % with a 6.53/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gorky Park?

Gothika (2003) - Stars caught in frightfully poor script

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Star Halle Berry is caught in the rain with a disturbing, presumably self-made injury on her left arm on this chilling poster for Mathieu Kassovitz's Gothika

A woman psychiatrist in a mental hospital for women suffers a car accident and wakes up three days later, accused of having murdered her husband! Against all odds she has to prove to herself and the people around her that a ghost did it!

Gothika is written by Sebastian Gutierrez (The Big Bounce (2004)) and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz (Café au Lait (1993)).
The story of Gothika is extremely silly and sluggish, though the events still fly by way too fast to warrant any effect. Instead of telling a frightening tale the filmmakers emphasize disturbing special effects.
The otherwise skilled actors are struggling with a frightfully dumb script in Gothika: Halle Berry (Race the Sun (1996)), Robert Downey Jr. (Due Date (2010)) and Penélope Cruz (Not Love, Just Frenzy (1996)) and the rest make little impact here.

Related posts:

Mathieu Kassovitz: 2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Amélie/Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) - Jeunet's hugely overrated Paris romance is an unbearable construct and trial (co-star)
The Crimson Rivers/Les Rivières Pourpres (2000) - Se7en-type action crime flick in the French Alps

Watch a 3-minute scene from the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 141.6 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.54 times its cost)
[Gothika premiered 13 November (USA) and runs 98 minutes. Berry was paid 6 mil. $ to star in the film. Shooting took place in Québec, including Montréal from April - ? 2003. Downey Jr. broke Berry's arm during filming by accident, halting production for 8 weeks. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Cat in the Hat, to a 19.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 3 weekends (#4-#4-#4) and grossed 59.6 mil. $ (42.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Kassovitz's native France with 10.4 mil. $ (7.3 %) and the UK with 9.6 mil. $ (6.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Kassovitz returned with Babylon A.D. (2008). Berry returned in Limp Bizkit music video Behind Blue Eyes (2003) and theatrically in Catwoman (2004). Gothika is rotten at 15 % with a 4.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gothika?

Ghost (1990) - Zucker's highly gratifying, cathartic movie experience

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This bright and persuasive poster for Jerry Zucker's Ghost promises eroticism between two of its time's hottest stars, who meet in orgiastic ecstasy under the word; BELIEVE

When the man in a young, beautiful New-Yorker couple get brutally shot to death in the city, his soul is not finished on earth: As a ghost he then fights to save his loved one from suffering the same violent fate that he did.

Ghost is written by Bruce Joel Rubin (Deep Impact (1998)) and directed by great Wisconsinite filmmaker Jerry Zucker (Airplane! (1980)).
It has a good many cheesy moments, - like the legendary clay pot-making scene in the beginning. But once it gets clear that Rubin's script seriously wants to establish a ghost movie universe, it also becomes increasingly evident that he succeeds with flying colors, and not least due to the film's terrific cast:
Demi Moore (Bunraku (2010)) is outstanding; Patrick Swayze (11:14 (2003)) radiates sincerity; Whoopi Goldberg (Homie Spumoni (2006)) is amusing as the psychic helper character, and Tony Goldwyn (Reckless (1995)) is a great villain. SPOILER The ending, in which Swayze's character lets go and ascends to heaven, is very very beautiful.
There is real movie magic in Ghost, which joins sensual romanticism with a religious crime drama with great success.

Related posts:

Jerry Zucker: Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Airplane! (1980) - The deadpan/spoof/crazy-comedy classic! 

Watch a VHS trailer for the film here

Cost: 22 mil. $
Box office: 505.8 mil. $
= Blockbuster (returned 22.99 times its cost)
[Ghost was released 13 July (North America) and runs 128 minutes. Zucker reportedly increased the pacing in Rubin's script. Swayze was paid 2 mil. $; Moore 750k $. Shooting took place in New York and Los Angeles from July - December 1989. The film opened #2, behind hold-over hit Die Hard 2, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it took the #1 spot in its 2nd week, which it held for another 3 weeks; it was in the top 5 for 18 weekends in total and grossed 217.6 mil. $ (43 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 52.3 mil. $ (10.3 %) and Japan with 48.4 mil. $ (9.6 %). It was the highest-grossing film of the year and reportedly sold incredible 51.46 mil. tickets in the US. It was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 2; for Best Supporting Actress (Goldberg) and Original Script. It lost Best Editing to Dances with Wolves, Score (Maurice Jarre) to John Barry for Dances with Wolves and Picture to Dances with Wolves. It also won 1/4 Golden Globe nominations, 1/4 BAFTA noms and several other awards. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches harder than this one. The film additionally made more than 40 mil. $ on video rentals and 25 mil. $ on video sales domestically alone. The film was remade in India in 1991 and in Japan in 2010. A musical stage adaptation was made in England in 2011. A TV-series adaptation was announced by Paramount Television in 2013 which hasn't come to fruition. Zucker returned with First Knight (1995). Swayze returned in Point Break (1991); Moore in Nothing But Trouble (1991). Ghost is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.86/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ghost?

The Golden Child (1986) - Get silly with this!

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With its star in a shiny black jacket and drenched in 1980s colors, this delightful poster for Michael Ritchie's The Golden Child also teases the film's fantastic dual California-Nepal settings

Chandler Jarrell is a social worker in Los Angeles, when he becomes the Chosen One, who is to rescue a divine Tibetan boy child from an evil rat monster-demonic man with the help of a good-looking local woman.

The Golden Child is written by Dennis Feldman (Just One of the Guys (1985)) and directed by Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer (1969)). Eddie Murphy (48 Hrs. (1982)) is the 'Chosen One', and Charles Dance (The Great Fire (2014, miniseries)) is the rat monster villain, who also naturally has a British accent.
Everything in The Golden Child is as super silly as this summary makes it sound like, and I fall hard for it. It seems like it has about a million drum solos awkwardly wedged into its soundtrack, and The Golden Child is a 1980s film that has 1980s kitsch quality going through the roof.
Murphy is intermittently funny, although it seems involuntarily so in this unusual mix of fantasy, action, adventure, comedy and romance. The effects are funny, and the film's detour to Nepal is handsome and thrilling as another unusual feature in a big mainstream Hollywood comedy. Some may argue that The Golden Child is so bad that it's good, and there's definitely something to be said for that argument.

Watch clips of a body double walking around wit his back to the camera in real Kathmandu, Nepal and Murphy on a Nepalese backlot set in LA in a 5-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 79.8 mil.$ (North America only)
= Uncertain - but certainly a big hit (returned 3.19 times its cost domestically alone and reportedly more than 4 times its cost worldwide)
[The Golden Child was released 12 December (North America) and runs 94 minutes. Feldman's spec script was bought by Paramount in a bidding war for 300k $. Shooting took place in Nepal, including Kathmandu, and California, including Los Angeles, from February 1986 - ?. The Golden Child is played by a 7 year-old girl actress. Composers Alan Silvestri and John Barry walked away from the film, with Michel Colombier's synth-pop score instead being made for the film. It opened #1 to an 11.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in #1 for another 4 straight weeks and spent another 2 weeks in top 5, grossing 79.8 mil. $. Its international total is not known, only that it is above 100 mil. $. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Murphy called the film "a piece of shit" in a 1989 Rolling Stone interview and reportedly involved himself in the writing of the screenplays for his starring movies after it. Ritchie returned with The Couch Trip (1988). Murphy returned in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). The Golden Child is rotten at 26 % with a 3.89/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Golden Child?

Gandhi (1982) - Kingsley illuminates hearts and minds in Attenborough's humanistic biopic

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Unusually many people flock on this poster for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi around the titular character, whom it thoroughly touts

Mahatma Gandhi's life was remarkable, for he was a remarkable man: From the formative rebellion in British-controlled South Africa to his non-violent insistence upon independence for his country India, he was a key figure in 20th century history.

Gandhi is written by John Briley (Enigma (1982)) and directed by British master filmmaker Richard Attenborough (Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)), whose 5th feature it is. Mahatma was an honorific name given to Gandhi in 1914 in South Africa, a Sanskrit word that means 'great-souled' and 'venerable'.
Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast (2000)), who is partly of Indian heritage, gives a masterly performance as the diminutive Indian, who more than once in his life turns to fasting and sticks with it to the point where he nearly dies to remind his fellow man of his wisdom that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind", - and other such valuable lessons. The principled strength and brilliant logic of Gandhi's humanism inevitably touches most audiences deeply, and Attenborough's vast epic thereby becomes an unmissable film as a cinematic study in the best of humanity.

Related post:

Richard Attenborough:  Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

A Bridge Too Far (1977) or, Epic Shit Hits the Fan

Watch a 6-minute trailer for the film here

Cost: 22 mil. $
Box office: 127.7 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 5.80 times its cost)
[Gandhi premiered 30 November (New Delhi, India) and runs 191 minutes. Attenborough was contacted by an Indian-born civil servant and devout Gandhi follower in 1962, who persuaded him to pursue a film of the man's life. 18 years passed before it came to fruition: India's prime minister Indira Gandhi was by the late 1970s persuaded to put up the first 10 mil. $ of the film's budget from the country's National Film Development Corporation of India fund. Shooting took place in the UK, including London, and in India, including Delhi, from November 1980 - May 1981. SPOILER More than 300,000 extras were used in the funeral scene, setting a new Guinness World Record. The film opened #14 to a 131k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #2 (on President's Day weekend), spending a total of 11 weeks in the top 5, grossing 52.7 mil. $ (41.3 % of the total gross). It was the year's 3rd highest-grossing film outside of North America, the highest-grossing film of the year in the UK and one of the highest-grossing imported films in India ever, adjusted for inflation. It was shown tax-free in Mumbai and Delhi. Goldcrest Films made a profit of 6.3 mil. £ on their participation in the film. It was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning 8: For Best Picture, Actor (Kingsley), Director, Original Screenplay, Cinematography (Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor), Art-Set Direction, Costumes and Editing. It lost Best Makeup to Quest for Fire, Score (Ravi Shankar and George Fenton) to John Williams for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Sound to also to E.T.. It also won 5 Golden Globes, 5/16 BAFTA nominations, 3 David di Donatello awards, was nominated for a Grammy, won 3 National Board of Review awards and many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film has been criticized for idolizing Gandhi and leaving out his less flattering sides and development as a person. Attenborough returned with A Chorus Line (1985). Kingsley returned in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1982, TV movie) and theatrically in Betrayal (1983). Gandhi is certified fresh at 85 % with an 8.15/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gandhi?

Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Clooney salutes investigative journalism with honorable, good movie

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+ Best B/W Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year 

David Strathairn looks keen in the bottom of this untraditionally composited poster for George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck.

In 1953-54 Edward R. Murrow changed broadcasted news reporting at CBS News, when he abandoned strict recounting in favor of investigative journalism, which put a break on senator Joe McCarthy's free-wheeling communist witch-hunt.

Good Night, and Good Luck. is written by co-writer/producer/actor Grant Heslov (Suburbicon (2017)) and co-writer/director/co-star George Clooney (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)).
This is Clooney's black and white salute to Murrow, who comes off as an important pioneer in American history.
Good Night, and Good Luck. is an interesting, good and intellectual movie which nevertheless doesn't lift the task of making the victims of the 1950s era's McCarthyism and political and behavioral alignment palpable. The prevalent fear in the public at the time also goes largely unexplained. But the film does create a compelling portrayal of office paranoia with sharp performances.

Related posts:
 
George Clooney: Hail, Caesar! (2016) - The Coen brothers serve a whimsical, flashy letdown (co-star)
The Monuments Men (2014) or, George Clooney's The Lecture (co-writer/director/actor) 
Gravity (2013) or, Survival in Space: The Ride (co-star)
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family (star) 
The Ides of March (2011) - Clooney's political thriller looks at the cynical downside of modern politics (co-writer/co-producer/director/co-star) 
The American (2010) - Corbijn and Clooney's paper-thin, boring, pretentious hitman outing (star) 
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - Anderson's technically, visually admirable but a bit tiring animation (voice star)
Burn After Reading (2008) or, Idiocy 2008 (co-star) 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Ocean's Twelve (2004) - Soderbergh returns with jumbled, glossy heist comedy sequel (co-star)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) or, The Gong Show Killer (director/co-star) 
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark (star)
From Dusk till Dawn (1996) - Tarantino, Rodriguez and chums' enjoyable Mexico vampire extravaganza (co-star)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 56.5 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 8.07 times its cost)
[Good Night, and Good Luck. premiered 1 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 93 minutes. Clooney was attracted to the story due to his major in journalism and TV journalist father. He accepted a salary of 1 $ for each of his 3 duties on it to minimize the budget size. Due to an injury incurred while making Syriana (2005), Clooney was not able to find insurance for himself and instead mortgaged his Los Angeles home to make the film. Wealthy men Mark Cuban and Jeff Skoll invested money in it. Shooting took place in Los Angeles. The film opened #21 to a 421k $ first weekend in 11 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 929 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 31.5 mil. $ (55.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.4 mil. $ (7.8 %) and Spain with 4.3 mil. $ (7.6 %). The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none. It lost Best Picture to Crash, Actor (David Strathairn (Speakeasy (2002))) to Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, Director to Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, Original Screenplay to Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco for Crash, Cinematography (Robert Elswit) to Dion Beebe for Memoirs of a Geisha, and Art Direction also to Memoirs of a Geisha. It was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes, 6 BAFTAs, won an AFI award, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, won a European Film award, 1/4 Independent Spirit award nominations, 2 National Board of Review awards, 5 prizes in Venice and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. The film reportedly made also made in excess of 20.9 mil. $ on domestic video sales, which, if taken into the equation, would change its status to that of a mega-hit. Clooney the filmmaker returned with Leatherheads (2008). Strathairn returned in American Masters (1993-05, documentary TV-series) and theatrically in The Notorious Betty Page (2005). Good Night, and Good Luck. is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Good Night, and Good Luck.?

The Godfather Part III (1990) - Coppola's operatic gangster opus finale

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Al Pacino looks vacantly at us from this dark, sparse poster for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III

Don Michael Corleone is attempting to legitimize the family mafia business and ready his successor, but as he gets near to his exit point, his past tracks him down, and soon death trickles forth everywhere around him, while a multi-million dollar deal with the Vatican crumbles.

The Godfather Part III is written by Mario Puzo (Superman (1978)) and co-writer/producer/director, master Michigander filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (Rumble Fish (1983)). It is the finishing chapter in the Godfather trilogy and the first of them not directly adapting Puzo's original 1969 novel.
More accurately than a 'chapter' The Godfather Part III should be termed an opus, because it is an opera-like tragedy, and the film is about as grand and lavish and as they come.
The story of Part III is fundamentally different from the first two and more resembles a fascinating story of an emperor than 'reality.' This necessarily has changed Al Pacino's (Jack and Jill (2011)) Michael character dramatically. SPOILER Coppola executes his operatic finale in Palermo, Sicily with his daughter Sofia Coppola (Anna (1987)) as Mary Corleone, whose death comes as a majestic Flood, as the sins of the father seemingly demand this awful sacrifice.
Andy Garcia (Ballers (2016, TV-series)), Talia Shire (The Deported (2009)), Pacino SPOILER and not least Eli Wallach (Christopher Columbus (1985, miniseries)) as the film's traitor all give outstanding performances in The Godfather Part III, which, despite perhaps being the slightest film in the trilogy, still is a film of extraordinary class.

Related posts:

Francis Ford Coppola: Twixt (2011) - Coppola's dreamlike Gothic is a late-night gem 

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Coppola goes for the jugular with unsubtle, overlong adaptation

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Apocalypse Now (1979) redux version - The horror of war  

The Godfather Part II (1974) - The great, icy monolith 

The Godfather (1972) - Coppola and Co.'s epic cinema magic
Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror 

Watch a masterful scene from the film here with Pacino and Diane Keaton

Cost: 54 mil. $
Box office: 136.7 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.53 times its cost)
[The Godfather Part III premiered 12 December (Los Angeles) and runs 162 minutes. Coppola only agreed to make the film to help himself out of the financial slump he had put himself in with his enormous flop One from the Heart (1982). He envisioned Part III as an epilogue to the first two films, and he and Puzo proposed the title The Death of Michael Corleone, which Paramount refused. Julia Roberts and then Winona Ryder were cast as Mary but dropped out, and the role eventually went to Sofia Coppola, which the director was since heavily criticized for as her performance was lambasted and decried as an instance of nepotism. Shooting took place in Italy, including Rome, New York and New Jersey from November 1989 - May 1990. It opened #3, behind holdover hit Home Alone and fellow new release Kindergarten Cop, to a 6.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weeks (#2-#3) and grossed 66.6 mil. $ (48.7 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning none. Those were Best Picture, lost to Dances with Wolves, Supporting Actor (Garcia), lost to Joe Pesci for Goodfellas, Director, lost to Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves, Cinematography (Gordon Willis), lost to Dean Semler for Dances with Wolves, Art-Set Decoration, lost to Dick Tracy, Editing, lost to Dances with Wolves, and Original Song (Carmine Coppola and John Bettis' Promise Me You'll Remember), lost to Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) by Stephen Sondheim from Dick Tracy. It was also nominated for 7 Golden Globes and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. A 4th Godfather film was discussed, and Coppola and Puzo had worked on a screenplay, when Puzo died in 1999. Coppola returned with Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Pacino returned in Frankie and Johnny (1991). The Godfather Part III is fresh at 68 % with a 6.42/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Godfather Part III?