50 God-Tier Acting Moments Buried in Bad Movies

2. Michael's Grief - The Godfather Part III

Whichever version you watch - the theatrical release or the slightly re-edited version released for the movie's 30th anniversary, retitled The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone - The Godfather Part III is a bitterly disappointing threequel that cowers in the shadow of its predecessors.

The movie's story is a convoluted mess that renders Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) himself a passenger in his own movie, yet Al Pacino's performance is still as flawless as it always was. His performance in the first two Godfather films is one of the great performances, and though the material isn't a tenth as good this time, Pacino is still note-perfect. In fact, at the very end of the picture, he delivers some of his very best acting as Michael Corleone, as Michael grieves the accidental shooting of his beloved daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). 

His anguished bellows of grief are almost unbearably painful to watch, and the most ironic thing is that this scene could've been terrible. Sofia Coppola, who was infamously bad in the role of Mary Corleone, is unintentionally funny when acting out Mary's death, and this scene doesn't necessarily work on a dramatic level, since the events that set off her death weren't really Michael's fault. 

Nevertheless, Al Pacino single-handedly saves the moment and, despite the inherent flaws in the writing, his stellar work makes this moment a powerful representation of the destruction and devastation his life of crime has led to, a thematic full stop on an epic cinematic tragedy.