Vincenzo Cortino (Fuchs) is forced to leave his native land of Sicily after seeing something he shouldn't have. In his new native land he finds success quickly, rising to become the Godfather of the local mob (played by Bridges in the later years). His sons, however, aren't quite as successful. The film focuses on the younger son, Anthony (Mohr). He ends up as a casino boss in Las Vegas. But other Mafia bosses have decided they want to get the family out of the way.

Pretty much all any review of this film need say is 'Jim Abrahams'. The brains behind Hot Shots, Airplane! and Police Squad has been quiet for the past few years. Mafia! is an ultimately disappointing return. The gags are there, but they seem more laboured than they have in the past. This film takes aim squarely at the Coppola's Godfather Trilogy and Scorsese's gangster trilogy. If you haven't seen those six films, you'll probably miss quite a few of the jokes. Being an Abrahams film, there is plenty of stuff from other films in there as well, of course. The main problem with this film is that the writers have put in all the jokes they could think of, without much regard for how funny they are. So there's a great deal of variability in the humour throughout. Probably better than Hot Shots 2, but not nearly as good as the one that started it all, Airplane! (At least the exclamation mark is back).