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.

Ving Rhames doing what he does best - playing the villain. Mafia was a very odd movie, but it was actually half decent. In trying to compare this flick to other movies, two people keep popping up in my head.. Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick. Now this movie is nowhere near the calibers of Pulp Fiction or Full Metal Jacket, but it brought me the same sense of strange, random chaos that Tarantino and Kubrick deliver in their movies. I won't even attempt to analyze this film any further, because I think the viewer should have an unbiased opinion in order to draw their own conclusions. Keep Mafia in the back of your head for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The PC-Game Kingpin with a huge Starsky And Hutch mood.Rhames brilliantly plays the violent criminal who, with the help of his staff (his soldiers), tries to conquer as much as possible terrain in an American metropolis. This role is made for him with his wardrobe-like body. There is some violent slaughtering of rivals and hanging out in his strip club acting like a tough guy. But that's it. There's nothing else to see in this film. The action scenes are limited to simply shooting at a short distance, at each person who's standing in the way.The cop who wants to tangle Rhames with the help of a vengeful female officer (complete with a microphone-like afro hairstyle) is of course, who could have thought this, has a relation with Rhames's sister.The end is miserable and the whole is a thrown together meaningless story. The situation with Rhames in his cell with shadowy figures could have been left out. It wasn't really of much use.The most ridiculous scene is when Womack is told to murder Dupree and then that guy rushes towards the other one like a chicken without a head, and ends up on his own chainsaw ... Horrible poor and terrible invented. They should sack the guy who came up with that stupid horrendous idea.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

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.