Mafioso: The Father, the Son

Fictional Philadelphia crime family power struggle

I saw this movie at a screening and was thoroughly impressed. I was able to get comfortable with the characters very easily; the story grabbed and held my attention throughout. This is a very well put-together film. The cast was easy to warm up to, plenty of familiar faces from other films and their roles played out smoothly. The character of "Frank" (who I was not very familiar with) was played excellently and I can see him in future films for sure.

Being from the Philadelphia area, I found it easy to get into the movie and being familiar with the locations made it all the more enjoyable.

If you are into "mafia" type movies (or even if you're not), this is one movie that is worth seeing.

This far from particularly anything mafia movie is not worth bothering with. Its the story of two generations of gangsters in Philadelphia doing what gangsters do.

Its loaded with low level character actors, most of whom have made their careers playing these sort of roles. While they may be fine in support, here, as leads, they look more than a bit uncertain.

The real problem with this is the direction and the script which are on the bad TV movie level. I was laughing at it as the opening court room scene began. As the scene went on the film made me squirm more and more. This wasn't real, it was someones confused TV recollection of reality

Don't watch this. It has moments of okayness, but mostly its just bad gangster dress up.

2 out of 10

I saw this film at a screening and it can't help but be compared to the Sopranos. The three leading characters of this film are very intriguing, all with an interesting dynamic or relationship. I found that the relationship between the father (John Costanza) and his son (Sal Mazzotta) the most intriguing. Costanzo's softer side is shown when we realize that he just wants to take care of his son and his family, and that he's not in it just for the money, which makes their relationship unique for a Mafia film. As we watch the Mafia family suffer one tragedy after another, we realize this is not just another Mafia movie. Mazzotta and Vito's (Leo Rossi) relationship was also very interesting, particularly in the latter part of the film where their association takes a much uglier turn. Leo Rossi's performance was another one that had me hooked, I guessed early on what was going to happen between them but it didn't dampen the effect on the film for me at all. The acting was very good and unusual characters made this film just as interesting as the Sopranos, which I really am hooked on. I recommend this if you are ready for graphic violence.

Sure, they've been a lot of bad movies that are perfect examples on how not to make one that's so damn bad, but "Mafioso: The Father, The Son", a dog's mess on the sidewalk that pathetically fails at being on par with the Godfather films and "The Sopranos", does a more than obvious job. Here are nine "don't" rules:

1) Don't give your film a bad title. 2) Don't have one of your film's co-writers act as the main character if he can't look awake and traditionally handsome, let alone act. Put a REAL gun in his mouth, and he'll get the message. 3) Don't create a mute supporting character and make him so damn uninteresting, except being fat and able to handle kung-fu combatants. 4) Don't hire good supporting actors to act in a crap film. 5) Don't have your actors, if you're working on a Mafia drama, emote every Italian stereotype in the bigot book and dehumanize your characters into caricatures. 6) Don't advertise your film being scored by an Oscar-winning music composer, when you don't. 7) Don't have a voice-over at the film's start and end when the story's happening in the present. 8) Don't have a bad film editor. 9) Don't "wide-screen" something that looks like a third-rate daytime soap opera.

If you're interested in the story of a mobster's son taking over the "family business", when "the Goddaddy" is killed, you're better off making the film yourself, if you follow the aforementioned rules. Avoid "Mafioso" like every STDs in existence, capeech?