With Kung Fu Hustle actor/director Stephen Chow was able to incorporate slapstick comedy within a Hong Kong action film creating what Roger Ebert described as “Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton meet Quentin Tarantino and Bugs Bunny.” The Last Godfather attempts to bring slapstick to the mafia epic with a Korean twist. The results are something like Jackie Chan and Jerry Lewis meet Francis Ford Coppola, Yakko, Wakko and Dot and only Jerry Lewis wants to be there.
Korean superstar Hyung-rae Shim directs, writes and stars as Young-gu, the idiot son of mafia godfather Don Carini (Harvey Keitel). Carini wants to retire and leave his empire to Young-gu but Carini’s associates are plotting to upset the current balance of power. Will Young-gu be able to rise above his bumbling behavior and protect his father’s interests or will the bad mafia guys take over?
Honestly, I don’t know how I made it to the end of this film without suffocating on Shim’s cheese-ball antics. Shim’s performance is like watching an old and unrestrained Jim Carey on amphetamines and because Shim is directing there’s no one powerful enough to reel him in. The film is so incredibly stupid that it was originally called The Dumb Mafia. A title that, apparently, was too honest of an assessment of the film’s worth. There’s probably a drinking game that could be based around The Last Godfather but I don’t see how even intoxication will make the film bearable.