Review: Suicide Kings (1998)

This is a Resurfaced review written in 2002 or earlier. For more information, please visit this link: Resurfaced Reviews.

Suicide Kings

Rating

Director

Peter O’Fallon

Screenplay

Josh McKinney, Gina Goldman, Wayne Rice (Short Story: Don Stanford)

Length

1h 46m

Starring

Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Nina Siemaszko, Henry Thomas, Sean Patrick Flanery, Nathan Dana, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, Frank Medrano, Brad Garrett

MPAA Rating

Buy/Rent Movie

Poster

Basic Plot

Five inexperienced young men kidnap a mob boss to force him to help save of the men’s sister.

Review

Christopher Walken, Jay Mohr and Sean Patrick Flanery prop up a sometimes-poor cast in a predictable film that leaves little to the imagination.

Avery Chasten’s (Henry Thomas) sister has been kidnapped and four of his friends, Max (Sean Patrick Flanery), Brett (Jay Mohr) and T.K. (Jeremy Sisto) come up with a plan to kidnap Carlo Bartolucci (Christopher Walken, a mob boss with significant ties.

They take Carlo, now calling himself Charlie Barrett, to Ira’s (Johnny Galecki) house for safe keeping, where they tie him to a chair with duct tape and cut off his pinkie to symbolize what is being done to the kidnapped girl.

Soon after, Charlie is allowed a phone call to his attorney (Cliff DeYoung) who he puts on the trail of the kidnappers, both sets.

The film sways from predictable to banal to intriguing, but never settling on a common theme. While the ending is a bit surprising, the events immediately prior are so easy to guess that you sit there waiting for them to unfold.

The major surprise came with Mohr’s performance. He put so much into his part that it’s easy to forget that he got his major start in comedy. I could hardly take my eyes off his interesting character. Add to that list Flanery. After his terrific start in the “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” Flanery doesn’t disappoint, bringing an honestly rich character to the screen.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Walken’s performance and honestly, it wasn’t as fantastic as I’d heard. He deftly portrayed his character and added a lot to the film, but not enough to steal it away from Flanery or Mohr.

The cast should be applauded, save for Charlie’s chauffeur/body guard (Denis Leary). Leary left me so cold, especially after his terrific performance in “Wag the Dog.” His use of invective after invective turned me off and seemed wholly inappropriate with the limited amount of vulgarities spouted by other members of the cast. If the film had been more violent, it wouldn’t have been so bad.

The story itself, while predictable for the most part was still enjoyable, but not enough to fully recommend to a mass audience. If you enjoy traditional mob dramas, such as “The Godfather,” you’ll want to stay away. If you’re hoping for bloody violence as in “Pulp Fiction,” don’t hold your breath.

Just remember that the film is low on violence and high on acting content and you should make it through the film just fine.