Mafia!

Starring: Billy Burke, Jay Mohr Director: Jim Abrahams Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 12th February, 2001 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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The Mafia, also referred to as La Cosa Nostra, is the collective name of various secret organizations in Sicily & the United States. The Mafia was originally the name of a loose confederation of people in Sicily, who, in the middle ages, joined for the purposes of protection & vigilante law enforcement. This confederation later engaged in organized crime. A member of the Mafia is a mafioso, or a man of honor. The Mafia spread to the United States through immigration by the Twentieth Century. Mafia power peaked in the United States in the mid-Twentieth Century, until a series of FBI investigations in the 1970s & 1980s somewhat curtailed the Mafias influence. Despite the decline, the Mafia & its reputation have become entrenched in American popular culture, portrayed in movies, TV shows & even product commercials. The term mafia has now been extended to refer to any large group of people engaged in organized crime, or in suspicious activity. When unqualified, however, Mafia still usually refers to the original Sicilian/American organizations.

This hapless comedy may actually work a lot better on video than it did in theatres. A parody of contemporary mob movies , Mafia! most closely resembles the first two Godfather films in its generational saga of a gangster family. Lloyd Bridges plays Don Cortino, a native Sicilian who presides over a crime syndicate, & Jay Mohr plays his Michael-Corleone-like son. The film is by Jim Abrahams, formerly of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker directing team , single-handedly trotting out the old dumb-joke aesthetic that worked wonderfully a lifetime ago but looks a little creaky in the era of Theres Something About Mary. Silly allusions to every crime film produced in the last three decades & featuring at least one wise guy or made man find their way into Mafia!s gags, but most are arbitrary & shrugged off. The film tanked in theatres for good reason; on the other hand, Mafia! might have a lot more to offer if youre slumped on your own couch at the end of a long day, ready for brain-dead entertainment & absolutely apathetic about comic integrity. Even a film this instantly stale on the big screen might have its place in video posterity.

Jay Mohr is an American actor & stand-up comedian. He was born in Verona, New Jersey to Jeannie & John. He has two sisters, Julia & Virginia. He is currently married to Nicole & has one son, Jackson. He appeared on television as a cast member of Saturday Night Live & in movies such as Jerry Maguire & Small Soldiers. He is also host of the Last Comic Standing reality television program. In 2004 he published the book Gasping For Airtime, in which he detailed the story about how SNL was sued when he plagiarized a sketch about an Irish bartender from comedian Rick Shapiro. Reference to plagiarism incident in his book  . Posters Of Picture Perfect

Editors Choice: Small Soldiers, Cherry Falls, Picture Perfect, Mafia, View DVDology

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