# Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998)

### reviewed by
Nathaniel R. Atcheson

    Mafia! (1998)

Director: Jim Abrahams Cast: Jay Mohr, Lloyd Bridges, Christina Applegate, Billy Burke, Olympia Dukakis, Pamela Gidley Screenplay: Jim Abrahams, Greg Norberg, Michael McManus Producers: Bill Badalto Runtime: 88 min. US Distribution: Buena Vista Pictures/Touchstone Rated PG-13: profanity, sex, flatulence, mock violence

By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)

In my review of There's Something About Mary, I said something to the effect of "laughter isn't everything." I now need to make a brief addendum to my postulate: Laughter isn't everything, unless I'm watching a Jim Abrahams film. See, spoofs are easy with me. I love movies, and I love movies that make fun of movies that I love. Sometimes I'm the only one in the theater laughing. Sometimes I laugh so hard that I embarass myself because my laugh is so high-pitched in comparison to my speaking voice (it cuts right through everyone else's laughter). Sometimes I laugh so much that my cheekbones are sore by the end of the film.

Abraham's latest film, Mafia!, induced this kind of hysteria upon me. It's gotten some mediocre reviews, but, hey, I'm the guy who laughs at everything. There may be a lot of jokes that flop in this film, but there are far more that work, and I laughed so frequently that the failed jokes usually occurred as I was recovering from the previous bout of giddy madness. I enjoy films like this because not one second of it is serious or thought-provoking. Most lighweight films that pose as comedies try to do other things, like develop characters, shape stories, and other such nonsense. Mafia! has no pretentions about characters or story, and it exists for no other reason than to make people laugh.

The film begins on the perfect high note, with a mockery of the opening of Casino. Our hero (Jay Mohr) is seen walking from a casino and getting into his car, which subsequently explodes and sends him flying through the air against a backdrop of flowing fire. To describe the story of Mafia! is absurd and pointless, but I will mention that it basically follows the framework of the Godfather films, with a lot of Casino references inserted throughout. Along the way, the parodies seem arbitrary, and rarely victimize mob films: pictures like The English Patient, Forrest Gump, and Jaws undergo severe and hilarious bashing.

Movies like this rely on just a few things, but the most important element is direction. Abrahams has been down this path many times before (Hot Shots!, Top Secret!, Airplane!, and any other film with an exclamation point in the title), and so I hold most of the success of Mafia! to his experience. He takes just the right attitude in each scene, and manages to wring at least a bit laughter out of even the most oddly placed references (one inexplicable moment seems like it wants to make fun of Titanic, but it never develops).

The actors are all energetic, which helps a lot with the tone of the film. Mohr (Suicide Kings, Paulie), who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, is so good here. He looks like he's having so much fun that he's containing his laughter in every scene (watch his face in the sequence by the swimming pool). He's probably the only performer in the cast who manages to urge laughter without the help of the material. Lloyd Bridges does a decent imitation of Brando's Godfather, while Pamela Gidley is dead-on in a full-blown mockery of Sharon Stone.

The hard thing about writing reviews for comedies is that I'm supposed to give examples of things and be specific. Unfortunately, I was so constantly blindsided by laughter during Mafia! that I can't remember a lot of what made me laugh. But that's a good sign: Mafia! is so funny that I wasn't even given time to apply any of the scenes to memory. I laughed so hard that it shut off my brain. I know that doesn't sound particularly complimentary, but when watching a dumb comedy like this, the first thing I want to do is shut off my brain. Finally, a film that does this for me.

    *** out of ****
    (7/10, B)

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               Nathaniel R. Atcheson

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