True glutton for cinematic punishment that I am, I trek to the theatre in the hope that the previews for said torment fail to do it justice and that what appears to promise ninety minutes of stiff back, stinging eyes and creeping nausea will actually turn out to be Four Weddings and a Funeral or The Winter Guest or Barfly or any similarly unprepossessing and unexpected treasure. The downside to this seemingly perfect job is that often a film is just as bad as its previews suggest or, more treacherous yet, that the preview is actually a collection of the film's best moments which, when strung together, are only marginally appealing or notable. It manages to look like the typical mob film in the production values, setting, costume and attention to period detail. The story is essentially straight and makes some brief forays into the comic set pieces Abrahms and his cronies have resurrected in film after film for nearly twenty years. The only ones who understand that this is a joke are in the audience.
Characters deliver vacuously stupid dialogue with deadpan expression.
Ultimately the film misses because it is just not funny enough. The story revolves around the rise to power of Sicilian immigrant to the US, Vincenzo Cortino, who bests a powerful mobster and takes over his rackets. As Don Cortino declines into old age, his sons vie for inheritance of the reigns of power. Fart jokes abound and the sight gags are so laboured and uninventive that often the camera must pan or pause on details of the background so that we get the joke. Clearly the film makers have made too many trips to a dry well.