Producers: Thomas Zambeck, Brian Katz, Robert Paschall, Sasha Yelaun and Emanuele Moretti   Director: Scott Windhauser   Screenplay: Scott Windhauser   Cast: Tom Welling, Cam Gigandet, Cher Cosenza, Chris Mullinax, Alessia Alciati, Davide Cincis, Al Linea, Sidhartha Mallya, Sterling Griffin and Luca Malacrino    Distributor: Saban Films

Grade: D-

There are some nice shots of Rome in “Mafia Wars,” but they pretty much exhaust the movie’s virtues, though they tick up the grade just a smidgen.  (The cinematography is credited jointly to Jonathan Hall and Francesco Ciccone.)  Otherwise this is an action movie so ineptly plotted and clumsily executed that watching it is likely to leave you in a haze of confusion and annoyance.  In fact, one wonders whether writer-director Scott Windhauser was given a sudden opportunity to make a film in Italy and scrambled to toss together a script within a few days to meet a deadline.  That would account for its haphazardness.

Whatever the case, the hero of the muddled plot is American Terry Jacobs (a miscast, befuddled Tom Welling, far from “Smallville”), who’s introduced in an Italian prison for reasons unexplained.  But we’re assured he’s a good guy, because he wants to get home to his three-year old niece.  While in the clink, though, he’s become the protector of Jack (Sterling Griffin, all too convincing as a loudmouth jerk), and when he suddenly and inexplicably gets released, Jack recommends him for a job to his brother Griff (Cam Gigandet, chewing the scenery instead of pasta, and sporting a Richard Widmark lunatic smile), the right-hand man to mob boss Rossi (Al Linea).  Both are obviously American, and why they should be in charge of Mafia drug operations in Italy is never explained. 

Terry’s release has been arranged by a singularly inept, though amiably gruff, policeman named Lombardi (Chris Mullinax), who’s put together a crew to infiltrate Rossi’s outfit and forces Jacobs to be the sixth man (thus the picture’s original title, “Deep Six”).  Terry has to prove himself to Griff, who is, to put it mildly, mercurial, threatening virtually everybody by waving a gun in their faces and smirking maniacally.  He’s also plotting, with sniveling young moneyman Mangal (Sidhartha Mallya), to take over Rossi’s outfit.

Lombardi is such a dunce that he leaves his computer (which looks to be at least a decade old) and his office phone (a cord model, no less) accessible to his crooked colleague Abruzzo (Davide Cincis, harrumphing into his beard).  Since the computer prominently identifies Lombardi’s undercover agents, complete with photos, it’s no problem for Abruzzo to call Griff with their identities, though for some reason he doesn’t out all of them at once.  Terry is put into jeopardy, though fortunately another player enters the picture—a hooker called Spinx (talent-free sexpot Cher Cosenza), who turns out to be a CIA agent.  How they work together to foil the bad guys is beyond ludicrous, and it winds up in a real topper—a street fight in the Vatican, where they’re dressed up as a priest and a nun, but armed with automatic weapons.

Even among sub-B-level action thrillers, “Mafia Wars” is pretty anemic stuff.  One feels especially sorry for Welling, who was a rather appealing presence in his younger days but here (as in the recent, equally awful “Clear Cut”) seems lost, or maybe just bored.  One can’t muster similar sympathy for Gigandet, who doesn’t appear to have developed much since 2008’s “Never Back Down,” where he was the same sneering villain, only younger.  The rest of the cast is amateurish, with Griffin taking the cake in that respect.  Alfonso Rastelli is the credited production designer, and he obviously knows his Italian locations, but the movie also had a separate Dallas crew, which indicates some interiors were shot there; editor Northrup Loyd can’t do much to cover over the raggedness of the plot, nor can composer Edwin Wendler juice up the excitement level of the preposterous, flatly directed narrative.

This is recommended only for those who miss the days when premium cable networks scheduled direct-to-video quality cheapies in the early morning hours.  For them “Mafia Wars” may have some perverse nostalgia value.