The Mafia Kills Only in Summer

This is a pretty little movie about Italian mafia made by Palermo's own Pif, famous Italian TV personality who grew up experiencing most of the events dramatized in the film. The story is nice and makes fun of the mafia while avoiding to minimize the huge problem it was and it is even today. Too bad the good aspects end here. The main problem here are the actors: almost every actor in the movie performed poorly, and I guess most of them aren't actors at all. This could be good if the "non- actors" would have had smaller or easier parts, but as it is, it doesn't work at all. Sorry to say the biggest letdown were the kids. There is a constant amateur vibe and continuous poor delivery of performances. The directing is better but still quite mediocre, and do very little to compensate the dreadful actors.

This Italian film is actually a bit of a comedy despite it being about the Mafia, or the Cosa Nostra or whatever you want to call them. Arturo is a native of Palermo where he learns early on that nothing is ever what it seems to be in Sicily. He learns too that many things can get you killed and so goes out of his way to avoid trouble.

Then he meets and falls for Flora and his whole life changes - except his seeming adoration of premier Giulio Andreotti. We follow him as he grows up on the troubled streets of Palermo where the increasing violence of the Mafia finally makes the people react and say they have had enough. This is all set against the ongoing attempts by Arturo to get the attention of Flora.

This is one of those films that manages to put a great big smile on your face whilst at the same time teaching you a bit about Sicilian political history. The actors are all great and Arturo as a child is played by Alex Bisconti who was a delight and as an adult by Pif who combined charm with vulnerability perfectly. I absolutely loved this and my version came with the option for English sub titles. It does the deal with the murders and assassinations so is far from being a full on comedy. It was though an absolute corker that should get wider distribution so more people can appreciate this Italian gem.

Honestly, it started off fairly cute and fun. The young cast were great.

But it meandered to nowhere. Pointless. Try hard.

Interesting if you are a student of the Cosa Nostra, but otherwise give this mess a miss.

Pierfranceso di Liberto (in arte Pif) has pulled off a remarkable achievement with this film. It centers on Arturo, a middle-class boy living in Palermo in the 1970s-1980s who gradually comes to awareness of the murderous evil of La Cosa Nostra. His dawning awareness, and his moral awakening, parallel that of his city, whose residents would have preferred to have ignored the cancerous presence of the Mafia, but the brazen murders of so many of the Mafia's opponents -- honest politicians, magistrates, journalists -- forced them to confront it. That, and the amazing victories of the magistrates Falcone and Borsellino in prosecuting these monsters; tragically, they were both murdered shortly after the obtained convictions of some 300 criminals. Diliberto's protagonist Arturo initially is fascinated both by the mobbed-up premier Giulio Andreotti, and believes Andreotti's -- and his parents' lies about the mafia not existing in Sicily. (Andreotti, the protector of mafiosi, liked to say that the problem of organized crime existed only in Campania and Calabria.) The film's tonal balance is remarkable; at times it is hilariously funny; at others, heartbreaking. As the mafia crimes escalate, one feels despair, but at the film's marvelous conclusion, hope is restored. La mafia uccide solo in estate is without doubt one of the best films ever made about the scourge of Cosa Nostra.

Don't expect "The Godfather" or Goodfellas" as this is supposed to be a comedy. Although can be quite bloody in parts.

The acting was ok but not terrific.

I can see this movie appealing to the country of origin but it does not hold up outside there.

The comedy was there but doesn't really come off most of the time.