Mafia!

Mafia!, like its gag-a-minute predecessors Airplane! and The Naked Gun, is a scorecard comedy, where a viewer's reaction is probably a subconscious evaluation of the jokes' batting average. If hits exceed whiffs, it's a winner; if whiffs exceed hits, it's a loser. Mafia! has two strikes against it before it even shows up at the park. First, its satiric targets (the Godfather films and Martin Scorsese's Casino) are either a generation old or far from iconic. While references to more recent, more familiar films like Forrest Gump and The English Patient draw big chuckles, others may draw blank stares. The second strike is the "trailer factor": since virtually none of the jokes are contextual, and 90% of them can be conveyed in a matter of moments, the people who put together theatrical trailers and television spots are free to plunder the film for all the best laughs. If you've seen that theatrical trailer, with its two-minute barrage of shattering poodles and overweight ersatz Riverdancers, you've probably laughed about as hard as you're going to laugh at the whole 85 minutes of the film. Director/co-writer Jim Abrahams offers plenty of moments worth a snicker or a grin, but ultimately that laugh scorecard just doesn't come out in his favor. Not recommended. (S. Renshaw) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—May 15, 2018—Kino Lorber, 87 min., PG-13, DVD: $11.95, Blu-ray: $19.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1998’s Mafia! features a nice transfer with a DTS-HD 5.1 audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by director Jim Abrahams and co-writers/co-producers Greg Norberg and Michael McManus. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a so-so comedy.]