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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A shame the real Mafia isn't this noble and great and stuff, January 6, 2006
TV movies are inherently awful, it's like an iron-clad rule. This one is a cut above the rest, and it was quite popular back in 1997, especially for the morbidly curious.
Now, in this post-Sopranos age, it's still quite funny. Puzo just went for broke with his source novel, another attempt to write about his fairy-tale Mafia.
The Last Don is the story about...the last Don, Don Clericuzio (for some reason, even the name is funny), a truly old-school Don who, while a thief and a murderer, is also a quasi-philosopher, loving father, and a venerable man of wisdom, his years of experience extorting, racketeering, and ordering the deaths of men having given him great insight into the human condition.
This is an 'epic', which means it had to be shown over two or three or however many nights it was, to tell the story of the Don's 'family', his troubled nieces and sons and all of their issues. Basically, the Don has some ridiculous stake in Las Vegas (since apparently, Puzo never watched Casino) and his son, or nephew, I forget, a guy named Crucifixio (is this even a name?) runs the...I forget which casino. Then there's this son, or heir, Dante, who wears renaissance hats that wouldn't be out of place in a Slick Rick video, who is just a bad guy and who you know will ruin the family.
There's a whole subplot about Hollywood, too, and the various degenerates and lowlifes who are found in the film industry. Cross falls for Athena, blah blah blah, there's a scummy agent, there's a bitter old writer (basically a Puzo-esque character), and some other bad people who get shot, etc. Easily one of the best characters is Lia Vazi, or Vazzi, who is from Sicily, and therefore 'the real deal', a stone killer proficient in all manner of execution. He's a good character. I was glad they brought him back in The Last Don II.
And of course, we have Danny Aiello, who has this amazingly bad aging makeup at the end which is hilarious and reason enough to watch this rather entertaining made-for-TV business. Of course, the ending 'suggests' that the don dies peacefully in his sleep (apparently, nobody in this family has been indicted or is in Federal prison, and the FBI is typically incompetent). Of course, when The Last Don II opens, and yes, I'll spoil it for you, the Don is still alive long enough to discuss how his old-school wife used to knit his own shirts(!), etc, etc.
It's completely fairy tale Mafia stuff, almost as if Puzo wished the Mafia were like this. Will offer no insight into the real world of organized crime, and compared with something well-written and realistic like The Sopranos, The Last Don is simply Cheez-Whiz for a slow night. But with this ridiculously cheap DVD, at least you won't have to watch commercials, too.
Just a tremendous effort by Aiello, Daryl Hannah, that Sicilian guy, Jason Gedrick, Joe Mantegna, and Kirstie Ally, who cries a lot, etc. I have faith that a Last Don III will appear one of these days...
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DVD ~ Patsy Kensit
DVD ~ Chazz Palminteri
DVD ~ Armand Assante
DVD ~ Pat Cooper
DVD ~ Zachary Bennett
DVD ~ Christopher Lambert
