Mafia! (1998)

Takeoff on the Godfather with the son of a mafia king taking over for his dying father

Director:

Jim Abrahams

Writers:

Jim Abrahams, Greg Norberg

Stars:

Jay Mohr, Christina Applegate, Lloyd Bridges

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jay Mohr	...	Anthony 'Tony' Cortino
Billy Burke	...	Joey Cortino
Christina Applegate	...	Diane Steen
Pamela Gidley	...	Pepper Gianini
Olympia Dukakis	...	Sophia
Lloyd Bridges	...	Vincenzo Cortino
Jason Fuchs	...	Young Vincenzo Cortino
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	...	Clamato's Wife
Gregory Sierra	...	Bonifacio

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?

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | casino | mafia | italian american | old man | 

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Taglines:

If you like Oscar winning drama and touching romance and you've got an hour and a half to kill This Summer Prepared to get Whacked

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, language, violence and drug content

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

24 July 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mafia!

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,577,961, 26 July 1998, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$19,882,538, 18 October 1998

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$30,182,538

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tapestry Films, Touchstone Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS (in selected theatres)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Christina Applegate's character's name is Diane, after actress Diane Keaton whom portrayed Kay Adams, the character Applegate is spoofing, from The Godfather trilogy.

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Goofs

During the final epilogues of the main characters, Joey Cortinos text says he started an impotency clinic and has a website at "www.my stiffy.com". A web address can't have a space in it.

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Quotes

[Emerges soaking wet from a bathroom stall, and sees everyone staring at him, and so he hurriedly attempts to explain his drenched and disheveled appearance]
Anthony Cortino: El Niño.

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Crazy Credits

Fun Fact: Bottled water was first produced in 1973 by Bill Bottlewater (after Greens Forman credit) Mixed Baby Greens Forman - Wolfgang Puck

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Alternate Versions

The version of the movie syndicated to stations by Buena Vista Television eliminates all of the joke credits from the final credit roll, presumably to save time.

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Connections

Spoofs Striptease (1996)

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Soundtracks

Happy Birthday To You
Written by Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill

User Reviews

Funny movie.

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? Not every joke works, but many of them are indeed quite hilarious. If you liked Jim Abrahams previous films, i.e. Hot Shots 1&2, you'll probably like this film. It spoofs everything from "The Godfather", to "Jurassic park 2", to "Forrest gump". It was also entertaining watching many people who were IN the Godfather spoofing they're own characters! My rating for "Mafia!"--8/10.

ABOUT THE DVD: Touchstone has released a reasonable DVD for the film. The image is presented in 1.85:1 and generally isn't a bad picture but has a surprisingly high amount of grain and dirt (This is especially obvious during darker sequences) but the picture is sharp,colors are good, and blacks are solid. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is as fine as I could have hoped for. Audio is crystal clear and there's plenty of surround sound effects to keep your rear speakers occupied. For extras we are given a tiny production featurette, which consist of cast interviews, film clips, and some behind-the-scene footage. This featurette runs a little less than 2 minutes. The disk is adequately closed-captioned with substantial paraphrasing. My rating for the DVD: 7.5/10.