Friends and Family
Regent Entertainment
A droll Mafia-movie sendup, "Friends and Family" centers on a lavish deception by a debonair gay Manhattanite who hasn't come out to his parents -- as a mob enforcer. Greg Lauren and Christopher Gartin ably lead an amiable cast of newcomers and seasoned pros, portraying devoted partners in life and crime who pose as caterers, eagerly abetted in their scheme by the Sicilian family for which they serve as trusted lieutenants.
The script by Joseph Triebwasser economically unfolds the rich setup but doesn't fully mine its comic potential, content to play gently with types rather than delve into characters. Nonetheless, this painless, sweet comedy could cook up niche action among the "gays and grays" distributor Regency is targeting when it opens May 16 in Los Angeles before a rollout into other markets.
Culture clash looms over the sophisticated Patrizzi clan, headed by the even-tempered Victor (Tony Lo Bianco), as two sets of Midwestern parents prepare to descend on New York. The Torcellis are visiting son Stephen (Lauren) and his boyfriend, Danny (Gartin), while Patrizzi daughter Jenny (Rebecca Creskoff) and her fiance Brian Lane Green) await the arrival of his folks.
Beth Fowler and, especially, Frank Pellegrino are believable as the intrusive Mrs. Torcelli and her mild-mannered husband. The Jennings, on the other hand, are a cartoonish whitebread duo who secretly lead a ragtag right-wing militia and who seize upon the trip to the Big Bad Apple as an opportunity to wage war against the "occupying federal army." Tovah Feldshuh is the unlikely leader of the plot, overdoing the comic shtick as the mom/mastermind who's perpetually exasperated with her inept husband (Patrick Collins).
The funniest mom here is the fierce Patrizzi matriarch (long-time-no-see Anna Maria Alberghetti). Unwilling to accept the truth about her sons (Danny Mastrogiorgio and Lou Carbonneau) -- straight men with talents for cooking and clothing design but no taste for the family business -- Stella repeatedly tries to convince her husband of their toughness.
Over Stella's objections, the Patrizzi sons are put to work preparing an extravagant dinner party to celebrate Stephen's father's birthday, with the family's brawny hit men enlisted as waiters for the central couple's phantom catering company. A friend of Stephen and Danny's (an exuberant Edward Hibbert) promptly begins coaching the wiseguys -- not in table service but in "The Sound of Music", Liz Taylor's marriages and other essential knowledge for any self-respecting gay man.
There's something deliriously fresh about the collision of queens, mobsters and white supremacists, but rather than igniting in comic sparks, they meet mildly. Debuting film director Kristen Coury has a feel for interpersonal dynamics but is less confident when staging larger groups, and the hoped-for hilarity doesn't quite materialize in the climactic sequence, which forgoes friction in favor of the familiar.
As the loving couple who know their way around automatic weapons but haven't a clue about spatulas, Lauren and Gartin are appealing and, with Lo Bianco and Pellegrino, come off best here for not trying too hard. The low-budget pic's production values are fine overall, with the exception of harsh, distracting lighting in early scenes.
A droll Mafia-movie sendup, "Friends and Family" centers on a lavish deception by a debonair gay Manhattanite who hasn't come out to his parents -- as a mob enforcer. Greg Lauren and Christopher Gartin ably lead an amiable cast of newcomers and seasoned pros, portraying devoted partners in life and crime who pose as caterers, eagerly abetted in their scheme by the Sicilian family for which they serve as trusted lieutenants.
The script by Joseph Triebwasser economically unfolds the rich setup but doesn't fully mine its comic potential, content to play gently with types rather than delve into characters. Nonetheless, this painless, sweet comedy could cook up niche action among the "gays and grays" distributor Regency is targeting when it opens May 16 in Los Angeles before a rollout into other markets.
Culture clash looms over the sophisticated Patrizzi clan, headed by the even-tempered Victor (Tony Lo Bianco), as two sets of Midwestern parents prepare to descend on New York. The Torcellis are visiting son Stephen (Lauren) and his boyfriend, Danny (Gartin), while Patrizzi daughter Jenny (Rebecca Creskoff) and her fiance Brian Lane Green) await the arrival of his folks.
Beth Fowler and, especially, Frank Pellegrino are believable as the intrusive Mrs. Torcelli and her mild-mannered husband. The Jennings, on the other hand, are a cartoonish whitebread duo who secretly lead a ragtag right-wing militia and who seize upon the trip to the Big Bad Apple as an opportunity to wage war against the "occupying federal army." Tovah Feldshuh is the unlikely leader of the plot, overdoing the comic shtick as the mom/mastermind who's perpetually exasperated with her inept husband (Patrick Collins).
The funniest mom here is the fierce Patrizzi matriarch (long-time-no-see Anna Maria Alberghetti). Unwilling to accept the truth about her sons (Danny Mastrogiorgio and Lou Carbonneau) -- straight men with talents for cooking and clothing design but no taste for the family business -- Stella repeatedly tries to convince her husband of their toughness.
Over Stella's objections, the Patrizzi sons are put to work preparing an extravagant dinner party to celebrate Stephen's father's birthday, with the family's brawny hit men enlisted as waiters for the central couple's phantom catering company. A friend of Stephen and Danny's (an exuberant Edward Hibbert) promptly begins coaching the wiseguys -- not in table service but in "The Sound of Music", Liz Taylor's marriages and other essential knowledge for any self-respecting gay man.
There's something deliriously fresh about the collision of queens, mobsters and white supremacists, but rather than igniting in comic sparks, they meet mildly. Debuting film director Kristen Coury has a feel for interpersonal dynamics but is less confident when staging larger groups, and the hoped-for hilarity doesn't quite materialize in the climactic sequence, which forgoes friction in favor of the familiar.
As the loving couple who know their way around automatic weapons but haven't a clue about spatulas, Lauren and Gartin are appealing and, with Lo Bianco and Pellegrino, come off best here for not trying too hard. The low-budget pic's production values are fine overall, with the exception of harsh, distracting lighting in early scenes.
- 5/16/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Mafia!'
According to the posters and ads, it's called "Mafia!" On the actual prints, the title is "Jane Austen's Mafia!"
Whatever the name, the product's still lame.
A two-decades-too-late spoof on "The Godfather" movies (with a little "Casino" and "GoodFellas" tossed in), the tediously sophomoric picture from the people who brought you "Hot Shots!" is more of the same, only this time without the funny bits.
Director/co-writer Jim Abrahams, who pioneered the Gatling gun gag format along with the Zucker brothers to side-splitting effect with the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" movies, has applied the old formula here only to discover that the shtick no longer sticks.
Leaving a mess of misfired potty jokes and tired visual puns in its wake, "Mafia!" makes the Farrelly brothers look like auteurs by comparison. This is an offer audiences will likely refuse.
Sadly, the picture marks the final screen appearance of Lloyd Bridges, who, like Chris Farley ("Almost Heroes"), John Candy ("Wagons East!") and Peter Sellers ("The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu") before him does not exit on a triumphant note.
A ZAZ veteran who would serve as a major, career-reshaping influence on Leslie Nielsen, an obviously ailing Bridges plays Vincenzo Cortino, the befuddled Mob don whose hot-shot son Anthony (Jay Mohr) is being groomed to take over the family business.
The family in question also includes Olympia Dukakis as flatulent matriarch Sophia Cortino, Billy Burke as two-timing sibling Joey Cortino and Christina Applegate as Diane, more or less the Diane Keaton character from the Francis Ford Coppola pictures. Pamela Gidley pops up as Pepper, a Sharon Stone-"Casino" type, while Alex Trebek and the Jeffersons put in a couple of unbilled appearances.
While some of the early Vegas sequences are amusing, the majority of the jokes (credited to Abrahams, Greg Norberg and Michael McManus) -- including the obligatory O.J. reference and a "Lord of the Dance meets" The Full Monty" sequence -- are warmed over and flatly uninspired.
Production values, including the molto Italiano score courtesy of one Gianni Frizzelli (John Frizzell), are good enough, but one is still left wishing somebody would have taken out a hit on this movie, whatever it's called.
MAFIA!
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Tapestry Films production
A Jim Abrahams film
Director: Jim Abrahams
Screenwriters: Jim Abrahams & Greg Norberg
& Michael McManus
Producer: Bill Badalato
Executive producers: Peter Abrams &
Robert L. Levy
Director of photography: Pierre Letarte
Production designer: William Elliott
Editor: Terry Stokes
Costume designer: Mary Malin
Music: Gianni Frizzelli
Color/stereo
Cast:
Vincenzo Cortino: Lloyd Bridges
Anthony Cortino: Jay Mohr
Sophia Cortino: Olympia Dukakis
Diane: Christina Applegate
Joey Cortino: Billy Burke
Pepper: Pamela Gidley
Marzoni: Tony Lo Bianco
Tiny Anthony: Seth Adkins
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Whatever the name, the product's still lame.
A two-decades-too-late spoof on "The Godfather" movies (with a little "Casino" and "GoodFellas" tossed in), the tediously sophomoric picture from the people who brought you "Hot Shots!" is more of the same, only this time without the funny bits.
Director/co-writer Jim Abrahams, who pioneered the Gatling gun gag format along with the Zucker brothers to side-splitting effect with the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" movies, has applied the old formula here only to discover that the shtick no longer sticks.
Leaving a mess of misfired potty jokes and tired visual puns in its wake, "Mafia!" makes the Farrelly brothers look like auteurs by comparison. This is an offer audiences will likely refuse.
Sadly, the picture marks the final screen appearance of Lloyd Bridges, who, like Chris Farley ("Almost Heroes"), John Candy ("Wagons East!") and Peter Sellers ("The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu") before him does not exit on a triumphant note.
A ZAZ veteran who would serve as a major, career-reshaping influence on Leslie Nielsen, an obviously ailing Bridges plays Vincenzo Cortino, the befuddled Mob don whose hot-shot son Anthony (Jay Mohr) is being groomed to take over the family business.
The family in question also includes Olympia Dukakis as flatulent matriarch Sophia Cortino, Billy Burke as two-timing sibling Joey Cortino and Christina Applegate as Diane, more or less the Diane Keaton character from the Francis Ford Coppola pictures. Pamela Gidley pops up as Pepper, a Sharon Stone-"Casino" type, while Alex Trebek and the Jeffersons put in a couple of unbilled appearances.
While some of the early Vegas sequences are amusing, the majority of the jokes (credited to Abrahams, Greg Norberg and Michael McManus) -- including the obligatory O.J. reference and a "Lord of the Dance meets" The Full Monty" sequence -- are warmed over and flatly uninspired.
Production values, including the molto Italiano score courtesy of one Gianni Frizzelli (John Frizzell), are good enough, but one is still left wishing somebody would have taken out a hit on this movie, whatever it's called.
MAFIA!
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Tapestry Films production
A Jim Abrahams film
Director: Jim Abrahams
Screenwriters: Jim Abrahams & Greg Norberg
& Michael McManus
Producer: Bill Badalato
Executive producers: Peter Abrams &
Robert L. Levy
Director of photography: Pierre Letarte
Production designer: William Elliott
Editor: Terry Stokes
Costume designer: Mary Malin
Music: Gianni Frizzelli
Color/stereo
Cast:
Vincenzo Cortino: Lloyd Bridges
Anthony Cortino: Jay Mohr
Sophia Cortino: Olympia Dukakis
Diane: Christina Applegate
Joey Cortino: Billy Burke
Pepper: Pamela Gidley
Marzoni: Tony Lo Bianco
Tiny Anthony: Seth Adkins
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/24/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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