Jim Abrahams has delivered delivered some of my favorite comedies. I love his style of slapstick and it's simplicity and detail always brings a chuckle, a cackle, a belly laugh and sometimes I find myself on the floor. The likes of Top Secret, Flying High, Police Squad and it's thetrical incarnation, the Naked Gun are classics. I can remember the time I first saw the Naked Gun, I never thought I could laugh so much and so hard.
Jane Austen's Mafia is the latest spoof to come out of the mind of Jim Abrahams and is a homeage to the great mafia movies of our time from the Godfather trilogy to the recent Casino. The opening scene pretty much gives it away, in writing aswell.
The movie follows the life of Anthony Cortino (Jay Mohr, Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire). He tells a tale of how his bumbling father Vincenzo left Semolina, Italy (Home of Warm Mayonaise) as a boy and moved (swam) to New York for a new life. When pushed too far by the local crime lord, he takes a bunch of flowers to him, literally, and becomes the new Don.
Years later, Vincenzo takes 47 bullets from an attempted assasination and rethinks his position as Don. He passes on his casino to son Anthony but his brother Joey (Billy Burke) feels that he is the rightful heir and hell, fun, ensues.
A great looking 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer from Buena Vista. Not long ago we weren't getting anything enhanced but now they seem to be producing some of the best looking transfers of late.
The image quality is astounding. Image detail and sharpness is pretty much perfect and color rendition and saturation is very, very good. Black levels are perfect, noise is non-existent and mpeg artifacts are no-where to be seen.
Right from the outset you know that the LFE (.1) channel is missing from this 5.0 channel soundtrack but it's not to say there isn't any bass out of the mains as the opening scene gives a small punch to start off the credits.
The narration is as clear as day but some other dialogue scenes are a little hard to discern, particularly when Lloyd Bridges first speaks.
