User reviews

Mafia is a crime flick in the tradition of New Jack City starring Ving Rhames as Renzo,a psychotically violent aspiring crime kingpin hoping to take over the whole city with the help of his crew.

Set in the 70's and shot 70's style with an old school R&B soundtrack, we watch as Renzo kills everyone standing in his way while a pair of cops try to connect him to the crimes. The cops, a hothead with a vendetta played by Pam Grier and a laid back straight arrow played by Robert Patrick, cannot catch the crook in the act as he goes around presenting himself as a legitimate investment banker.

There's not much to this movie. It's violent, really short, and Ving Rhames does a great job in a role that plays to his strengths allowing him to be both smart and deadly, not unlike his character in Pulp Fiction. The two cops are underwritten but the actors' performances are fairly good. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty terrible, unfortunate especially considering how much time is spent on Renzo's conscious stricken right hand man.

The movie doesn't have much to say or anything, other than the 70's setting, to set it aside from other movies of its kind. There are occasional references to blacksploitation but they're not a huge part of the movie. Rhames wears African garb and Pam Grier is obviously playing a riff on her Foxy Brown role but this movie never has the fighting the system mentality of those classic movies.

Basically, this is a passable, generic little crime flick that's pretty watchable, especially for fans of Rhames, but don't expect a classic.

The movie has a good plot and 3 strong actors (Grier, Patrick and Rhames) but the supporting cast was horrible. Story seems to jump around and truly starts to seem pointless. Would like to see this movie done with a higher budget, different supporting cast and director.

This movie was terrible from the story line to the sets...everything about this movie stunk. NEWS FLASH GUYS...black folk absolutely did not wear mohawk haircuts in the seventies. I didnt even realize this horror show was suppose to be a 70s period piece untill about 30 minutes in...thats how bad the sets and wardrobe was...Ving Rhames did a good Job with very bad material but other than that..oh HOLD Up..why they got my man gillie looking like a slow circus clown..lol.

Total garbage. I think Ving is still upset about his basement romance in "Pulp Fiction ". And will someone please givev MeMaw Pam a mirror. It's too late to try acting lessons. I can never watch "Foxy Brown" again, I know what the future holds for her. Do yourself a favor...follow a dog until it leaves a pile and look at that for 90 minutes. It will probably be more entertaining than this. Did I mention the bad wigs?

Well, I can't say that I had any particular high expectation for this movie, but giving it the benefit of the doubt I still decided to sit down and watch it. And about 80 minutes later I sat there with a very hollow feeling. There really was no point to the storyline in "Mafia".

While attempting to capture the essence of the mid-seventies, then the end result of "Mafia" didn't really come of as particularly believable. And it was just hard to get into the groove of the movie.

The acting in "Mafia" was adequate, and Ving Rhames was the driving force in the movie, no doubt about it. However, this wasn't Ving Rhames's most brilliant movie moment, not by a long shot. But there wasn't anything overly impressive to be witnessed throughout this movie.

If you enjoy mafia/mobster movies, then there are far, far better movies available.