# Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    MAFIA

Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Touchstone Pictures/ Tapestry Films Director: Jim Abrahams Writer: Jim Abrahams & Greg Norberg Cast: Jay Mohr, Lloyd Bridges, Olympia Dukakis, Christina Applegate, Billy Burke

The New Vulgarity is here to stay, or at least until Cameron Diaz decides to wash that man right out of her hair. With "BASEketball" coming up on screens just one week after "Mafia," the studios are catering to movie demographics just as sure as Italians are catering cappellini. Danny Boyle, who directed the Scottish "Trainspotting," has nothing on Jim Abrahams, famous for such spoofs as "Airplane" when it comes to scenes of retching and bathroom humor. Abrahams's send-up of organized crime is on the money more times than not. "Mafia!" will be appreciated by less inhibited adults as surely as it will be a big hit with the younger fry. Featuring sight gags, verbal repartee, and references to past films that aficionadoes will be delighted to catch, "Mafia!" will keep the fans laughing and groaning in equal portions with its pratfalls and parodies alike. It also features a career-reinforcing vehicle for its star, Jay Mohr, whose background as a standup comic serves him well.

Switching back and forth in time, the movie gets started early on by pointing out the one-sided nature of Las Vegas: the house never loses. Considering the odds against winning (about zero chances in a hundred), it's to the credit of the Peppermill Hotel Casino in Reno that its managers allowed the crew to film the gruesome sequences. Anthony Cortino (Jay Mohr), the son of godfather Vincenzo (Lloyd Bridges), overlooks the action as his employees rake the money in by the cartload, a new sight gag appearing every seven seconds or so. One of the games allows gamblers to guess the number which the dealer is thinking about. "Two," says one hopeful. "No, I'm thinking of three, I'm sorry," replies the croupier as he shovel yet another pile of bills into the box. Another game highlights the sign "You can't possibly win," as customers simply put their bills on the table while the house promptly shovels them into the chest. There's only one way to limit your losses, and that's simply to mail the money to the casino. "The smart ones just send us the money and save on the plane fare," the house reports as it blithely opens envelopes and stashes the loot.

One of the charming benefits of this movie is that it introduces the young people in the audience to subtitles. Who knows what Antonionis and Bergmanns and Fellinis will soon be seen by this crowd of sophomores? When Pierre Letarte's camera pans to the Sicilian town of Salmonella in the early years of the century, we see godfather-to-be Vincenzo Cortino (Jason Fuchs) delivering packs of cocaine to mobsters against a background of posters such as one that says, "Got vino?" (You have to be fast to catch these gags: Abrahams does not linger over much.) Yet another poster warns of "guard sheep," and as Vincenzo escapes from the island one step ahead of a man determined to kill him, he takes the boat "Il Pacino" all the way to Ellis Island, brushing up on the handbook "English with an Italian accent."

Think fast and you'll see visual references to movies like "The Godfather," "Casino," Jaws," "Forrest Gump" and even "The English Patient," (the last one a scene that has the entire Cortino family including its horse throwing up). Christina Applegate, the nymphet from the TV series "Married..with Children," has blossomed from a ribald adolescent into a charming lady of southern charm as she goes through the motions of a WASP girl friend of Joey trying to fit into a family of Sicilian-Americans. "Oh, Italian food," she murmurs with suprise as she prepares to sit down with the gangsters and, when shocked that the shot-up Vincenzo's bed-ridden form lies unattended by doctors and nurses, Anthony explains, "Diane, Dad belongs to an HMO."

If you have a taste for this type of ribaldly--and every red- blooded American should--you'll enjoy the fun, which at eighty-six minutes does not go on for one unnecessary moment. "We used to kill and dismember people; now it's all drugs...where's the honor?" laments the godfather. As the chief honcho, the late Lloyd Bridges furnishes an honorable end to his long career with this, his last film.

    Rated PG-13.  Running time: 86 minutes.  (C) Harvey Karten
    1998

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