stephen , please post if appropriate . " mafia ! " - crime isn't a funny business by homer yen ( c ) 1998 on a particular night when i found myself having some free time , i had a chance to either go to sleep early or to see " mafia ! " , a spoof of mafia and crime films such as " the godfather , " " goodfellas " and " casino " . at 84 minutes in length , i thought that i could enjoy a few laughs before getting a good nights sleep . but by my account , i think that <NEG> my laff-o-meter only registered </NEG> a few grins , one giggle , and maybe <NEG> one chortle </NEG> . i suppose that you could justify your time as homage to the venerable hollywood star , lloyd bridges , who just recently passed away and whose last performance was in this film . " mafia ! " chronicles vincenzo cortino's ( lloyd bridges ) life . separated from his family when he was young , he escapes to america and tries to live an honest life . but as fate would have it , vincenzo grows up to be a powerful and klutzy crime lord . following in his footsteps are his two sons , joey ( billy burke ) and anthony ( jay mohr ) . like all siblings in powerful crime families , they squabble over power , the future of the family , fortune , and women . " mafia ! " is co-written by jim abrahams , who also contributed to some gut-busting funny spoofs such as " airplane " and " the naked gun . " but these previous movies were funny because the jokes seemed more universally understood and there was more of a manic silliness at work . as i write this , i also wonder how many people have actually seen the movies on which this spoof is based . crime movies in general contain a lot of profanity and violence . it's a tough genre to parody . i was kind of hoping that they could somehow spoof the profanity used in all of those crime movies , maybe by having all of the tough crime lords say " please " as they decide which sector to take over , but this opportunity was never explored . there were one or two moments that made me smile such as the scene where vincenzo is dancing with his newly wed daughter-in-law . a gunman shoots him several times . the impact of the bullets <NEG> cause him to make these wild contortions </NEG> that force the wedding band to change music styles to keep up with him , from the samba to disco to the macarena . i think that i just gave away the best part of the film . oh well , that just means that you can go to sleep a little earlier .
