Mafia Kid

Those of you who (Italians) are taking this movie seriously need to ease up. I truly believe this was a comedy. Satire has to be exaggerated. Since all you Brooklynites seem to be taking offense, have you ever watched Saturday Night Live? Do you understand the concept of satire? Borgnine's performance was over the top and Sylvia Miles as the coke-sniffing Congresswoman was a laugh riot.

Sasha was charming and his mother was comical. Sorry guys, this was light comedy that poked fun at Italians/Puerto Ricans/Jews. Give it a rest, there are plenty of better movies that put Italians in a bad light. I bet you all watch The Sopranos every Sunday huh?

Alan Bowne, sadly, will not be around to enjoy SPIKE's reemergence (assuming that Image gets off its ass and publishes a long-awaited anamorphic DVD release); but the film's many fans will rejoice. Image published a pan-and-scan transfer on LaserDisc in 1989.

In other reviews of the film on this site, some (perhaps myopic?) individuals skewer SPIKE for its depiction of certain Italian characters - failing to notice that the foibles of women, Jews, gays, Puerto Ricans and W.A.S.P.s share equal billing. Morrissey & Bowne's targets were hypocrisy and bigotry. The score - a double bullseye.

Viva Spike Of Bensonhurst. While we're asking, may we have an official DVD release of Andy Warhol's BAD, another classic of the period?

Sasha Mitchell stars as Spike Fumo a boxer who want to be a champion but not mess up his pretty looks in the process, Fumo gets along well with the mobster Baldo Cacetti (Ernest Borgnine, in a great performance) however it's when Spike starts eyeing Cacetti's daughter Angel (Maria Pitillo) he's forced out of his neighborhood and forced to live with his Puerto Rican friend Bandanna (Rick Aviles) and there he starts his own boxing circuit, however when Cacetti finds out Spike has gotten Angel pregnant, As well as Bandanna's sister India (Talisa Soto) things heat up to confrontation in this hilarious and sly satire of Rocky and mobster flicks. The best joke is of course that Sasha Mitchell doesn't want to actually earn his title as champion but rather have it fixed by mobsters so he doesn't have to work so hard. Sasha Mitchell displays real acting talent and real sharp comic skills, something that would surprise you if you saw him on that awful TV show he was on. This without a doubt Mitchell's best movie and it's thanks to the humor derived from Mitchell and Borgnine's chemistry which provides the most enjoyable moments. The only complaint is Talisa Soto who comes off like a deer in the headlights. Still it's shocking that the best Mitchell could do after this was Kickboxer 2, 3 and 4.

3.5/5 Matt Bronson

Spike of Bensonhurst is a lot of fun. It's an only slightly idealized look at life in Brooklyn's ethnic enclaves in the 1980s, by former Warhol co-conspirator Paul Morrissey. With amusing and well deployed performances by Mitchell and by Borgnine as the neighborhood Mob boss he runs afoul of, it's one of the few Brooklyn- or New York-set movies from that era that actually looks like it was filmed there, not on a set. (Even Martin Scorcese's films of the period - although not his 1970s movies, of course - look slick by comparison.)

Maybe people don't like the fact that Spike implies strongly that life goes on even amidst crack, ethnic violence, and corruption and doesn't preach about these things - just presents them as facts of the local situation, without letting them get in the way of humor? Somehow, the movie leaves you amused and feeling good in spite or even because of some of the more graphic stuff it shows you.

Unlike the majority of my fellow reviewers, I really like this movie and am proud to say I own a copy. It's very funny in part and everyone gives a good performance. Even Geraldine Smith is hysterical. Whoever did the casting did a great job.