User reviews

This film punches above it's weight. We have the talented Toni Collette and the skilled and beautiful Monica Bellucci. You just have to keep in mind that it's a farcical comedy-drama. Yes, the plot is unrealistic; but, then, it's supposed to be! Once you get past that and see the talented acting and very fine writing, sit back and enjoy a movie that never lags in entertaining you and holding your interest. Deceptively engaging with a fine supporting cast. The way in which a comedy of errors results in success for the lead is awfully amusing and this was a surprisingly delicious picture. Enjoy!

Monica Bellucci and Toni Collette are absolutely delightful in Mafia Mamma. When I saw the trailer for this film, I knew it was going to be a fun ride and definitely did not disappoint. There was a couple of flat moments, but the rest was jam packed action and tidbits of gore.

It's probably not a film I would bother watching again though. It is like a once off enjoyable flick, but nothing I would put on my DVD shelf and turn to for a laugh.

If you want a fun film, like some action and comedy. Then it is well worth checking out. Like I said the two leading ladies performances definitely make it worthwhile.

As much as I liked Toni Collette in Knives Out, and she was bearable in The Estate, which actually had some funny moments amongst the eyerolls, she is just cringe in her humor attempts in this film. It's not from her lack of acting or comedic skills, but from the infantile screenplay she had to work with. It's like a bunch of giggly fifth-graders wrote the cheesy comedy and the story. To make her character even more cringeworthy, they pretty much have her begging to get some male action. Then pairing her up with a much younger Mr. McDreamy made me pull muscles from the cringing and eyerolls. The three writers also give us a cliched story that was predictable from start to finish, so the writing department was the big flop in this mess.

Aside from the beautiful Italian scenery, great cinematography and decent directing given what Hardwicke had to work with in this long dragged out and predictable story, this film has nothing much to offer. The only entertaining parts of this film were her two bodyguards, who were like Laurel and Hardy, and actually made me laugh a few times. Aside from those two and Monica Bellucci who always shines, all the rest of the characters were unbelievable and boring.

I'm usually pretty good at sitting through bad films, but this one was difficult to watch. Every single joke falls flat and the main character starts to become psychotic by the end. Nobody can relate to Toni Collette's character at all. The movie clearly pushes an agenda on it audience. Every character has their time with "the idiot ball" (when a character does dumb things for no reason). This movie did the one thing I didn't think was possible, it became the literal worst movie I have ever seen. The only thing that the writers of this film should be writing from now on, is names on Starbucks coffee cups.

This crime comedy isn't a play on cultural stereotypes, it's a parade of them. Toni Collette does her best to carry a pedestrian cast and a lousy script. Monica Bellucci did ok, in a deadpan way, but it must have galled her to see Italians played as such buffoons.

It's not meant to be realistic, of course, but the whole thing is just a shamble of cliches spiced with violence that veers between sharp and slapstick.

Early on there is a scene in a women's self-defence class where Kristin (Collette) gets support from Jenny (Sophia Nomvete), who is big, black and brassy. The whole class ends up in a ridiculous fem-power chant. This just lays the groundwork for turning up the volume of dumb, unfunny, repetitive cultural cliches once they hit Italy.

I was absolutely delighted to discover this film, as it was shot in the beautiful country of Italy, which immediately captured my attention. And while I was initially expecting a light-hearted story, I found the film to be much more than that, with a riveting plot centered around warring mafia families. Yes, the violence and bloodshed is a bit intense, but it was the brilliant irony of the innocent character of Kristin Balbano, who thought she was on an Italian romantic adventure, that truly captivated me. The performances by Toni Collette (Kristin) and Monica Bellucci (Bianca) were outstanding and they shared incredible chemistry, especially in the scenes where they were together. The rest of the cast also did a fantastic job, bringing the story to life in a way that kept me completely engaged throughout. The stunning Italian location and fitting score only added to the film's appeal. I highly recommend giving this movie a chance - it's a no-brainer! I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10. And again, I do not understand the reviews giving this movie a rating of 1 or 2. Did they see the movie? Or thought they would see the new Godfather? Relax, watch and enjoy life!

Awful movie.

Nobody laughed for the first 30 minutes, at which point a singular funny joke made the audience realize that it was supposed to be a comedy, which had not been clear up until that point.

The script was bad from start to finish. Unfunny scene after unfunny scene, and characters who nobody cared about.

If you want to make a comedy film, you need to have comedy actors. Actors who can make anything funnier. There are no comedy actors in this film at all.

The action sequences looked like they were framed and staged by high school students who had only ever seen The Godfather on the small screen once.

This movie is meant to be tongue in cheek satire of the mafia genre and reading most of the reviews here it seems like most people missed that fact completely. I see reviews complaining about it being too violent or gory and not funny. I found this to be very funny however, it plays on the standard typical mafia stereotypes while also offering new jokes and I found myself laughing many times throughout the film. Yes there is violence in this movie and many shoot outs, but it is a movie about the mafia and you probably shouldn't be watching this movie if you are offended by that. This is a fun satire of the mafia genre and is worth giving a chance if you are a fan of those types of films.

The only time we laughed was when we looked at each other in the end and concluded it was the worst film we had ever seen. Then we cracked up in tears about how bad it was. Honoustly, I can't even go into it.

The actors are so bad and cartoonesk, but not in a funny way. The story is completely unlogical.

It has some gruesome stuff in it as well, which makes it very random and childish. Some Italian scenery and music is nice though. But it truely feels like it's not fit (yet) to be released.

I Feel sorry for Toni Colette to feature in such a bad movie, which she produced herself, mind you.

Anyway, we had a laugh. In the end.

What a poorly acted and directed waste of time! You try to suspend disbelief but it's pretty impossible in this movie. The stereotypical caricatures and unsuccessful slapstick versus the gratuitous violence and gore dont gel and throw the story off balance. The laughs are minimal and you've-got-to-be-kidding-me more than funny.

Why on earth would anyone make a wonderful actress like Toni Colette portray such a ditzy one-dimensional and delusional character. Not for a moment does her distraction from reality or her response to any occurrence ring true.

I gave one star for the beauty of Italy and the Italian language.

This movie was a blast from start to finish, and Toni Collette stole every scene she was in.

I honestly think that most of these reviews are written by bots, because people take these things too seriously. Honestly, the movie is a solid seven, but I'm giving it a ten because so many people have rated it one star for no reason whatsoever.

Since the very start of the movie, you could tell it's going to be a hoot. And the title is "Mafia Mamma". What did you expect to watch? I went into it with no expectations and laughed my ass off, both me and my husband, and we weren't even high or drunk.

Hands down the best comedy I've seen since "White Chicks".

And all of y'all that didn't like it because of your sophisticated taste, go and laugh at stupid memes on Instagram or TikTok or something...

I do not know why people are saying they wanted to get out of the cinema or rate it 1/10. Well I guess there a different people have different taste.

Sure it is not an exceptional movie. For me it was entertaining.

I had fun watching it, and I guess that is what a movie is about.

The cast is nice and the story, well, I probably can name thousands of movies who are predictable. There are so few movies which give something extra, and this is not one of them.

In a way it shows that all people have a limit before they turn to their dark side. Maybe that is a message you get out of here, together with the fact that all "horrible" people also have a good side.

Really disappointed in this movie. I was looking forward to it after seeing the trailer. So many of the jokes didn't hit the way they were clearly meant to and some moments were super cringey. I knew this was supposed to be a ridiculous comedy, but it's like they tried to do too much and tried too hard to be funny or something. The dramatic, over the top acting in some scenes that was supposed to be funny (I think?) actually gave me second hand embarrassment sometimes for the actors. The two people sitting next to me in the theater walked out halfway through lol. Don't waste your time or money on this one and wait for it to come out on a streaming service to watch if you want.

Worst movie ever! We went to see it because Toni Collette is in it. We just hoped to have a few laughs. We weren't expecting it to be awesome but, we never expected it to be soooo bad that we would have to walk out! I won't be in a hurry to see another Toni Colette movie too soon which is sad because I have enjoyed other movies she has been in. I guess she needed the money. And the director should give refunds!! I'll have to write her name down so I can avoid anything she is involved with in the future. How is it that this film was released as is? Best advice to everyone: Don't go, don't go, don't go.

You know those films where the jokes don't land, the writing is trying way too hard, and the actors are just the worst?

This film is like a car crash that lasts for 2 hours. It just flat out sucks so hard. It was agony to watch.

Nothing in this film works. The story is pathetic. The jokes are sh#t. The acting sucks. Did I mention that the the story is pathetic? You just know some useless writer was sitting in the bathtub one day and went "I've got it! Legally Blonde, but it's the mafia!"

Then, even worse, they got some studio to front up millions of dollars. And some poor schmuck to direct it.

Surely, when you're making a film that is truly sh#t, someone on the crew must be thinking "Wow. This is a really sh#t film." But I guess you can't say that without losing your job - maybe that crew member should send an anonymous letter to the studio: "FYI, this film is sh#t".

Make you wonder just how truly bad Batgirl must've been to get cancelled, yet they released this sh#t.

Unbelievable.

Mafia Mamma is a fun, fish out of water, crimedy that is very self-aware of its own absurdity.

It's a throwback to classics like "Married to the Mob" centering a reluctant middle-age housewife, desperate for some excitement only to cave to pressures of becoming a mob boss.

Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci have great onscreen chemistry. They carry this film far as they can even though the writing fails them.

The screenplay is camp, the humor is archaic, the editing is shifty and the direction is sophomoric. But this film has one target audience in mind-- 'women of a particular age' who are in on the joke and just wanna kick back and have a few laughs at the theater.

I enjoyed the trailer and thought this would be fun. It's terrible. There are a few laughs but not many and for the most part, the story makes no sense. Yes, I know it's a comedy but even a comedy needs to take place in a consistent world. We are supposed to believe Toni Collette's character is an innocent fish out of water, but her character is so crass and vulgar that there isn't much of a contrast between her and the gangsters, yet we are clearly supposed to see a contrast and view her as a "good person". When she arrives at the funeral of the grandfather she's never met, she doesn't seem to care because she didn't know him and has no empathy for anyone else that might feel some grief. She makes it clear to anyone who will listen that her primary reason for going to Rome is to have fun and get F*@#ed! The gangsters show more sensitivity.

There is a strange character arc for Toni Collette's character. She continues to run her mafia family while still being a "good person" but she learns the positive value of being more focused on herself rather than others. She also learns that she doesn't need a man. Another weird point is that her cheating husband is put down for being a grown man working at Starbucks yet none of the gangsters are looked down upon for their way of making a living.

It's starts out kind of cringeworthy only because of Collette's strong performance to reflect the main character. Took me a while to sort it out but once you accept that this is how the main character should be, and let the movie develop, this is a surprisingly comedic oddball movie. What helps carry this film is are the dynamics and chemistry of the entire supporting cast. There is a fine line here on cringe and funny and yes, there are some "we can do without that" moments but there so many little things that will draw a smile, chuckle or quick laugh. If I had to describe it better, I'd say it was a little like Moonstruck.

Some of the reviews here are confusing this for film bound for Cannes. Relax. It's a predictable but funny enough flick, definitely not great cinema. Commenters saying Toni Colette's talents are wasted in this film should maybe think she's giving it her comedic touch - none of the awkwardness and subtlety of Muriel, but she's really enjoyable despite the film's shortcomings. Are Monica Bellucci's talents wasted here? There's a possibility of that, and I often wonder if Italian actors and actresses get tired of mafia films and roles, even when spoofing them. Her role is a cool, aloof mafia family member, mentoring and perhaps puppeteering Colette's character in her new family position. The three Balbano goons are decent enough foils (again formulaic - at first resenting the Americana but eventually coming around) with Eduardo Scarpetta standing out (you may know him from Lidia Poët or My Brilliant Friend). Is it predictable and tropey? God, yes; the lead character even makes a self-deprecating "Under the Tuscan Sun" joke, a sentiment I can't imagine writers felt at least somewhat for at least one plot thread. But it's not dreadful and not a waste of time if you choose to stream it.

We were attracted to see this movie because Monica Belluci, an actress that has made really good movies like Malena, is in it. What a shame that someone like her allows that her name and acting is included in a movie that I can only describe as "disgusting" . For those who have not seen it yet, run away from it. It is not only dumb, but violent, full of blood and stupid jokes. It is a shame that some actors or actresses will do anything for the money, and this is the case for this movie. Best thing to do is to consult IMDB before going to the theater, because if we had seen the reviews beforehand, we surely would have it given it a second thought before watching this terrible picture.

Toni Collette plays a bored and unassuming housewife catapulted into the highlife of being a mafia boss.

Oh what can I say. Toni Collette at her very best. I adore this lady she can make you believe anything. She's supported by a great cast in this dramedy and I belly laughed several times and I rarely ever do that during a film.

The story is silly of course but how many great film stories are? Is it any sillier than Bladerunner or Star Wars? But it is so engaging, and so funny, and yet still has high tension that you can't help be carried along on a wave of pure enjoyment.

This has been the highlight of my year so far. If you enjoy well acted, well directed, fun stories watch this film and I am sure you will be entertained.

My Review - Mafia Mamma

My Rating 1:10

I have only one question I'd like to ask Toni Collette who plays Kristin a dowdy American Italian born housewife who is summoned to Italy to take the reigns of a crime syndicate when her Mafia Grandfather is shot down in a blaze of bullets.

The question I would ask is did you read the script before signing on for this piece of rubbish posing as a comedy ?

I won't waste much of my time in even criticising this drivel as I've already wasted 1:41 minutes of my time luckily not my money as it was a freebie credit.

Toni Collette an actress I admire usually shines in comedy think of Muriel's Wedding, Connie and Carla and Cosi but all she succeeds to do in Mafia Momma is look dreadful even when glammed up a little and just come across as stupid but not in a funny way.

It's unusual for me to say there was not one aspect of a movie I enjoyed but I'm saying it now.

Many fine movies today go straight to streaming and miss a Cinema release this is one that should have as they used to say "gone straight to video."

I'm including it somewhere in my top 100 worst movies of all time.