Mafioso: The Father The Son (2004)

I was really impressed with the depth of talent this small film was able to pull in. It's what gives this mafia movie a heart. While it doesn't have the shiny polished feel of a typical big budget studio film, it's a quality piece with solid talent and a good story at it's core. It's that Indy feel to it that should draw you to watch it in the first place. Making films is an incredibly hard thing to do, making good films is nearly impossible. Add to that little or no budget and you can just imagine how hard these guys worked to pull it off and, at least in my opinion, they did. If you're looking for a night in and want to add a little flavor to the evening this film is a great fit.

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?

On a personal note...this movie was filmed, in part, near my family's home in the movie. Anyway, I was home visiting when they filmed for over a month on my street. It was interesting to watch the care (bordering on fanaticism) that the producers took in endlessly rehearsing minor scenes and then finally filming them. Which leads me to my point.So much time, money, and effort spent to produce such a really good film but with a lot of violence. Lord knows, it's not that everybody needs to be Pollyanna...we all are aware how truly wretched life can be...but why spend time watching somebody get tortured with a welding torch? Although the characters were really good, did they have to act out pointless violence? There just has to be some better way of spending our time.In spite of all this, I still liked the film. We are base animals...as the film incessantly likes to remind us in this and his other films...Thank you! We get the idea! However, why not take all that talent and time and produce something the uplifts the human spirit rather than denigrates it? "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Glorify gangsters, not me! But I couldn't help watching this movie and in spite of all the criticism I have espoused in this review, I have to admit that I like mafia movies so I couldn't help but like this one.

I watched this film and thought it was a very good movie especially the actor Sal Mazzotta who played the role of Frank Paridiso he was excellent. I believe he carried the film. I thought the editing was done very well and the cinematography was really good. This film was shot real to life it reminds me of the Sopranos. Also the actor Leo Rossi who played the role of Vito was very believable. The scene that was very disturbing was the actor that played Danny Defino(Johnny Williams) when he was tied up and they used a blow torch to kill him. That scene my Girlfriend could not watch it felt so real it was scary. Even the actor that played Frank's father(Robert Costanzo) was very good. If your a mob fan and you love mafia films I recommend this movie to everyone.