MAFIA! Reviewed by Jamie Peck
The joke is on mob movies this time, specifically "The Godfather" trilogy, as the all-powerful Don Vincenzo Cortino (the late Lloyd Bridges) comes to a realization that his crime empire must be handed down to one of his two sons -- noble war hero Anthony (Jay Mohr in the Al Pacino role) or coke-addicted psychopath Joey (Billy Burke in the James Caan role). There's even a Diane Keaton-esque girlfriend (Christina Applegate, nicely deadpan) for the former, appropriately named Diane. Some of "Casino" is rolled into the story as well, as Anthony starts business in Las Vegas and courts a sassy showgirl (Pamela Gidley, a dead ringer for Sharon Stone) who does a pole routine that could get her into the Olympics. This surreal physical display is one of the film's funniest moments.
For those who've never seen "The Godfather" -- get thee to a video store! -- or fear that the genre is too dated to milk for laughs, "Mafia!" also pokes fun at everything from "Striptease" to Barney to "The Lost World" to Riverdance to "Forrest Gump." (The best riff on "Gump," by the way, is not the "Run, florist, run!" bit showcased prominently on the previews, but rather a verbal exchange that ends with the line, "I have a son?") A great deal of these jokes work, though "Mafia!" sometimes pushes a visual too far, like the scene at a wedding reception where the band mistakenly believes a dancer is doing the Macarena, when, in fact, he's being jerked around by the hail of gunfire. It's funny to begin with, but the length of the sight gag sledgehammers away its effectiveness.
Most of the time, however, the over-the-top approach is played just right, piling gag on gag until the comedy bases are loaded and a home run is scored; a prime example would be a send-up of "The English Patient" that segues into a free-for-all puke party a la "Stand by Me." The closing credits hide subliminal jokes ranging from mock-throwaway trivia about the cast ("Fun fact: Actress Christina Applegate invented radar") to a great rewrite of the American Humane Association disclaimer. Even the press kit gets in on the silliness -- the movie production information is written completely in Italian, while Abrahams' bio states that "in addition to [the his films, he] has also attended screenings of ‘Gandhi,' ‘Wall Street,' ‘Dances With Wolves' and ‘The Silence of the Lambs.'"
Not much else can be said about "Mafia!" To criticize the indifferent plot or thin characters would be a pretty pointless task since their sole function is to provide something to hang all of the funny business on, and, in this case, the funny business is worthwhile for those of us who like this sort of thing. The genre that "Mafia!" belongs to is a difficult one to review because of its subjectivity -- either you find this sort of thing amusing or you don't. I did, and enough that I can recommend it as an enjoyable summer diversion, though it's nowhere near as enjoyable as many of its ancestors. Speaking of lineage, frequent Abrahams collaborators David Zucker and Pat Proft have similar fare due in the coming weeks with "BASEketball" and "Wrongfully Accused," respectively. Here's to hoping they're at least on par with "Mafia!"
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews