Jane Austen's Mafia!
Encyclopedia
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
.
Jane Austen's Mafia! received generally negative reviews, but has developed a following since its video release.
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 avenges the attack, then goes into hiding in Las Vegas
, where he becomes a casino manager. 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."
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). Meanwhile, Tony's casino is a great success until he meets a femme fatale
, Pepper Gianini, hired by a man named Cesar Marconi as part of a deep-laid plan to distract him from his duties and to drive a wedge between him and Joey. 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 world peace 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.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Jim Abrahams
Jim Abrahams
Jim Abrahams is an American movie director and writer.Abrahams was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, to a Jewish family, and attended Shorewood High School...
and starring Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was...
, Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...
, Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis is an American actress. In 1987, she won an Academy Award, BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for her performance in Moonstruck...
, and Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations...
. It spoofs Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
's Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
series and various other mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
films, notably Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's Casino
Casino (film)
Casino is a 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese...
. The film also parodies films in other genres, ranging from Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
to Il Postino
Il Postino
Il Postino is a 1994 Italian film directed by Michael Radford. The film was originally released in the U.S. as The Postman, a straight translation of the Italian title...
and The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
.
Jane Austen's Mafia! received generally negative reviews, but has developed a following since its video release.
Plot
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
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
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
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
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
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
). During the festivities, however, Vincenzo is shot 47 times in an attempted hit and nearly dies. Tony avenges the attack, then goes into hiding in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, where he becomes a casino manager. 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."
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
Malathion
Malathion is an organophosphate parasympathomimetic which binds irreversibly to cholinesterase. Malathion is an insecticide of relatively low human toxicity, however one recent study has shown that children with higher levels of organophosphate pesticide metabolites in their urine are more likely...
(parody of Vito Corleone's heart attack in The Godfather). Meanwhile, Tony's casino is a great success until he meets a femme fatale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
, Pepper Gianini, hired by a man named Cesar Marconi as part of a deep-laid plan to distract him from his duties and to drive a wedge between him and Joey. 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
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, and is on the brink of declaring world peace 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
Barney & Friends
Barney and Friends, also referred to by HiT Entertainment as Barney the Friendly Dinosaur, is an independent children's television show produced in the United States, aimed at children from ages 1-8...
the purple dinosaur as a bonus.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jay Mohr Jay Mohr Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was... |
Anthony 'Tony' Cortino |
| Billy Burke Billy Burke (actor) William Albert "Billy" Burke is an American actor. He is known for his role as Charlie Swan in Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He is also known for his role as Gary Matheson in the second season of 24.-Life and career:Burke was born in... |
Joey Cortino |
| Christina Applegate Christina Applegate Christina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations... |
Diane Steen |
| Pamela Gidley Pamela Gidley Pamela Catherine Gidley is an American actress and model.-Early life:Gidley was born in Methuen, Massachusetts but was raised in Nashua, New Hampshire and the youngest of the family with four older brothers... |
Pepper Gianini |
| Olympia Dukakis Olympia Dukakis Olympia Dukakis is an American actress. In 1987, she won an Academy Award, BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for her performance in Moonstruck... |
Sophia Cortino |
| Lloyd Bridges Lloyd Bridges Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958... |
Vincenzo Cortino |
| Louis Mandylor Louis Mandylor Louis Mandylor is an Australian film and television actor.-Life and career:Mandylor was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the son of Greek immigrants Louise and Yannis Theodosopoulos, a taxi driver... |
Vincenzo Cortino as a young man |
| Jason Fuchs Jason Fuchs - Early life :Fuchs was born in New York City, to a family of Hasidic Jewish background on his father's side. He went on to enroll and graduate from Columbia University.- Career :... |
Vincenzo Cortino as a boy |
| Joe Viterelli Joe Viterelli Joseph "Joe" Viterelli was an Italian American actor known for his mafioso-orientated personality endorsements.... |
Dominick Clamato |
| Tony Lo Bianco Tony Lo Bianco Tony Lo Bianco is an American actor in films and television.Lo Bianco was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a taxi driver. He is known for his roles in the cult films The Honeymoon Killers, God Told Me To, and The French Connection... |
Cesar Marzoni |
| Blake Hammond | Fatso Paulie Orsatti |
| Philip Suriano Philip Suriano Philip Suriano is an American actor, probably best known for playing the doomed Dominick Santoro in Martin Scorsese's Casino, based on real-life mobster Michael Spilotro... |
Frankie Totino (as Phil Suriano) |
| Vincent Pastore Vincent Pastore Vincent Pastore is an Italian-American actor, often cast as a mobster and best known for the role of Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on The Sopranos.-Early life:... |
Gorgoni |
| Marisol Nichols Marisol Nichols Marisol Nichols is an American actress best known for her role in the sixth season of 24 as Special Agent Nadia Yassir.-Early life:... |
Carla |
| Carol Ann Susi | Mrs. Clamato |
| Gregory Sierra Gregory Sierra Gregory Sierra is an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller and as Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor of Fred G... |
Bonifacio |
| Catherine Lloyd Burns Catherine Lloyd Burns Catherine Lloyd Burns is an actress and writer, living in Brooklyn with her family.-Acting:She has appeared in multiple television shows, and was a regular on Partners and LateLine. She played Caroline Miller, Malcolm's "overly earnest" teacher, in Malcolm in the Middle... |
Woman in Vegas Show (uncredited) |