Taglines: The Comedy You Can’t Refuse.
Mafia! movie storyline. Young Vincenzo Cortino, son of a Sicilian postman, delivers a package for his father and accidentally sees something he should not see. In a donkey’s, well, he is smuggled out of town, where he tries to reach a ship headed for America. There, Vincenzo works his way up to the top of the Mafia.
One day, his youngest son makes a mistake and has to leave town. A little later, he ends up as a casino boss in Las Vegas. But the heads of the other families want old Don Cortino out of the way. So, they shoot him 47 times and send a *very* attractive woman to distract his son from his casino work. Will he fall for her or will he return to Diane, who, by the way, had run for President successfully in the meantime?
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, Christina Applegate, Billy Burke, Jason Fuchs, Joe Viterelli, Tony Lo Bianco, Marisol Nichols and Carol Ann Susi.
The film spoofs Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series and various other mafia films, notably Martin Scorsese’s Casino. It also parodies films in other genres, ranging from Forrest Gump to Il Postino and The English Patient.
About the Story
Like The Godfather Part II, the narrative of Mafia! consists of a series of flashbacks interwoven with the main plot. Tony is the son of a prominent Mafia don, Vincenzo Armani Windbreaker Cortino. 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 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, 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 5-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.
Mafia! (1998)
Directed by: Jim Abrahams
Starring: Jay Mohr, Lloyd Bridges, Olympia Dukakis, Christina Applegate, Billy Burke, Jason Fuchs, Joe Viterelli, Tony Lo Bianco, Marisol Nichols, Carol Ann Susi
Screenplay by: Jim Abrahams, Greg Norberg, Michael McManus
Production Design by: William A. Elliott
Cinematography by: Pierre Letarte
Film Editing by: Terry Stokes
Costume Design by: Mary Malin
Set Decoration by: Jerie Kelter
Art Direction by: Greg Papalia
Music by: John Frizzell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, language, violence and drug content.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: July 24, 1998
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