Director
Jim Abrahams

Cast
Jay Mohr,
Lloyd Bridges,
Olympia Dukakis,
Christina Applegate

Music
Gianni Frizzelli

This time round, Director and co-writer Jim Abrahams went it alone, on Jane Austen's Mafia, and delivered a film true in spirit the their first feature Flying High (aka Airplane) which was a parady of the Airport movies from the 70's.   Mafia is of course a parady on the brilliant Godfather movies (could this be a bigger compliment :-)
Like the first Godfather movie, Mafia is told from the Point-of-View of the Godfather's second son, Anthony (Jay "Jerry Macguire" Mohr), and like GF1 his girlfriend Diane (Christina Applegate)  is unaware of the family business.  (incidentally, this characters name, Diane, is taken from the actress (Diane Keaton) who played Kay in GF1 thru 3...Just a bit of trivia for ya......

Anyhoo Don Cortino (Lloyd Bridges a Abrahams/Zucker favourite) is close to retirement and must decide which of his two boys will take over the family business.  Problem is, Anthony wants no part in it, and his old brother is a raving psychotic (Bridges' description of him in the film says it best though)

In a surprising role is Olympia Dukakis as the Don's mother, with a severely irrated bowel.. (ahhhh there's nothing better than a few fart jokes, and these ones are really pathetic....damn I laughed :-))

As with any Abrahams/Zucker styled movies, the film is riddles with hit and miss jokes, as they take off the Godfather, Casino, Jurassic Park, Child's Play, Riverdance, Forrest Gump..the list goes on and on....

Thankfully, the short running time of 84 minutes (6 of which are joke infested credits) prevents any lag in pacing and the jokes come thick and fast.
Jane Austen's Mafia is exactly what you'd expect from one of the the brains behind Flying High, the most pathetic, ridiculous, corny and lame humour ever to grace the screen, and I relished ever minute of it!!!!!

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
The great thing about most of the "adult" Region 4 Buena Vista DVDs is that unlike their US cousins, they are 16:9 Enhanced, and Mafia just fits into that category with 1.78:1 framing. But I'd say that's where the improvement ends.  As clean as this transfer is, there is an annoying haziness about the picture, it's just off sharp, and this tends to lead to a very slight amount of image smearing thoughout...the opening sequence is a bit much on the eyes.  But generally, this problem is under control, with only a subtle indiction throughtout, but it is there if you're looking for it. 
Colour Saturation is rich yet very accurate and image detail was quite high, even considering the less than perfect sharpness.  The cleanliness if the print makes up for quite a bit as it's virtually grime free, but one can't help to look at this picture and think it's just not quite right.

Though credited as being Dolby Digital 5.0, unlike most 5.0 mixes this one has been encoded as Dolby Digital 5.1, with a silent LFE channel. 
Even so, bass content was quite high, in certain places, and this is surprisingly a pretty good multi-channel mix.  Music makes good use of all channels (Frizzelli's Godfather theme ripoff is great), with a high level of ambience in the rears, and sound effects themselves are quite effective at times. 
Dialogue was always clear and intellegable and well localised.  I'm also pleased to say that the syncing impairment of the pioneer DVD player didn't pose any real problems here.it was as good as it could be on this machine (shock horror!!!).

And Again, here is "another" Buena Vista DVD without an extra in site.... I'm sure with a film like Mafia you could have the GAG's REEL from hell..... 

It's a pity that this brand of Humour escapes a few people, as Mafia is a Hoot & a Holler and not a bad DVD (even without any extras)

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB output)
Receiver: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
     Fronts: B&W 602
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Rears: Jamo Magic 14
     Subby: M&K V125
 

- reviewed 22nd November 1999