| Jane Austen's Mafia! | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Jim Abrahams |
| Produced by | Peter Abrams Robert L. Levy |
| Written by | Jim Abrahams Greg Norberg Michael McManus |
| Narrated by | Jay Mohr |
| Starring | Lloyd Bridges Jay Mohr Olympia Dukakis Christina Applegate |
| Music by | John Frizzel (credited as Gianni Frizzelli) |
| Cinematography | Pierre Letarte |
| Editing by | Terry Stokes |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 24, 1998 |
| Running time | 84 mins. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000,000 |
| Box office | $19,889,299 (US) |
Mafia!, also known as Jane Austen's Mafia! is a 1998 comedy film directed by Jim Abrahams and starring Jay Mohr, Lloyd Bridges, Olympia Dukakis, and Christina Applegate. It spoofs Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather series and various other mafia films, notably Martin Scorsese's Casino. The film also parodies films in other genres, ranging from Forrest Gump to Il Postino and The English Patient.
Contents |
Like The Godfather: Part II, the narrative of Mafia! consists of a series of flashbacks interwoven with the main plot. Jay Mohr plays Tony, the son of a prominent Mafia don, Vincenzo Armani Windbreaker Cortino (Bridges). As the film opens, Tony introduces the main thread when he exits a Vegas casino and walks to his car, accompanied by a voiceover explaining his philosophy of life. When he starts the car, it explodes.
The story then regresses more than half a century to describe the boyhood of Tony's father, Vincenzo, who was born in Italy, the clumsy son of a Sicilian postman. One day, while making a delivery for his father, Vincenzo trips and the parcel bursts open, revealing a strange white powder. The parcel's recipient, concluding that the delivery boy has seen too much, tracks Vincenzo to a street fair, where he kills his father; the boy, however, escapes to America, where he grows to young manhood, marries, and struggles with poverty before finally finding his destiny as a mafia boss.
The film then visits the recent past; Tony has just returned from the Korean War and is bringing his idealistic Protestant girlfriend, Diane (Applegate) to meet his family and friends at his big brother Joey's wedding reception (a parody of Connie Corleone's wedding in the beginning of The Godfather). During the festivities, however, Vincenzo is shot 47 times in an attempted hit and nearly dies. Tony announces his intention to kill Gorgoni, a drug lord with whom Vincenzo had refused to do business before the attack. Diane leaves him, saying he's abandoned the peaceful ideals of his youth, and adding that she'll never be anything to his Sicilian family but "that Protestant chick who never killed anyone." Tony avenges the attack, then goes into hiding in Las Vegas, where Cesar Marzoni offers him the opportunity to manage his casino, The Peppermill; Tony accepts and his casino is a great success until he meets a femme fatale, Pepper Gianini, hired by Marzoni as part of a deep-laid plan to distract him from his duties and to drive a wedge between him and Joey.
Vincenzo recovers from his 47 gunshot wounds and visits Las Vegas, where he officially names Tony his successor; Joey, furious at being passed over, is told "You get Wisconsin." The Don then returns home, where he falls victim to his five-year-old grandson, Chucky, who assassinates him by spraying him with malathion (parody of Vito Corleone's heart attack in The Godfather). The film returns to the present after Tony catches Joey and Pepper cavorting in a hotel room together and walks out in disgust - only to have his car explode.
Tony is horribly but temporarily disfigured, and attends his father's funeral in a wheelchair, where he spots the killers when he sees little Chucky taking a payoff. However, he decides to postpone vengeance until he can win back Diane's love and put his life in order. Diane has by this time become President of the United States, and is on the brink of declaring total world disarmament when Tony goes looking for her. He persuades her to put world peace on the back burner until after their wedding. During the ceremony, with the help of Vincenzo's mother (Dukakis), several henchmen, and an Eskimo, he settles the family's accounts in an orgy of slaughter (filmed similarly to the end of The Godfather), even arranging the harpooning of Barney the purple dinosaur as a bonus.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jay Mohr | Anthony 'Tony' Cortino |
| Billy Burke | Joey Cortino |
| Christina Applegate | Diane Steen |
| Pamela Gidley | Pepper Gianini |
| Olympia Dukakis | Sophia Cortino |
| Lloyd Bridges | Vincenzo Cortino |
| Louis Mandylor | Vincenzo Cortino as a young man |
| Jason Fuchs | Vincenzo Cortino as a boy |
| Joe Viterelli | Dominick Clamato |
| Tony Lo Bianco | Cesar Marzoni |
| Blake Hammond | Fatso Paulie Orsatti |
| Philip Suriano | Frankie Totino (as Phil Suriano) |
| Vincent Pastore | Gorgoni |
| Marisol Nichols | Carla |
| Carol Ann Susi | Mrs. Clamato |
| Gregory Sierra | Bonifacio |
| Catherine Lloyd Burns | Woman in Vegas Show (uncredited) |
In its opening weekend the film took $6,577,961 in 1,942 theatres, averaging $3,387. In total in the US, the film made $19,889,299.[1]
Mafia! received generally negative reviews with a 14% "rotten" rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews and a 4/10 rating.[2] Nevertheless, the film has developed a following since its video release.[3]
James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote: "Airplane! and The Naked Gun (the former of which was directed by Jim Abrahams, who helms Mafia!), two early entries into what has become a thriving comedy sub-genre, worked in large part because the humor was fresh. Now, countless movies later, many of the jokes seem recycled, even when they aren't. Too often, the viewer knows the punchline before the film delivers it, which isn't conducive to laughter. ... The volume of jokes is extremely high, presumably as a form of insurance -- if one fails, maybe the next will succeed. The problem is, Mafia! contains too many duds. And, when you're not laughing, you start to realize how little this film has to offer beyond the diluted humor. ... My guess is that the reaction to Mafia! will depend in large part upon how easily a viewer succumbs to laughter. If 50% of the film's gags work for an individual, that person is going to have an enjoyable time. Personally, while I could see the intended comedy in almost all of the jokes, most of them didn't tickle my funny bone. ... Mafia! isn't a terrible film, and it will probably provoke at least a burst or two of laughter from even the most grim viewer. On the whole, however, it's a weak parody that is better suited to video viewing than a theatrical experience.[4]
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