Suicide Kings

source: Suicide Kings

"Suicide Kings" is an often enjoyable and compelling film, despite a few plot holes due to some twists at the end that the writers desperately threw in to surprise the audience, but didn't take the time to reflect on whether they made perfect sense or not. Nevertheless, it's a fun ride all the way through. The characters are all interesting, in their own way. People have referred to the Ira character as annoying and obnoxious, but he's also the character I most relate to. You'll never catch me throwing a party in my house when my parents are gone, because I'm incredibly paranoid about people wrecking the place and I can imagine how paranoid I'd be in Ira's situation with his friends keeping a gangster with his finger cut off captive in my parents' living room. The actors all do splendid jobs, and have a natural chemistry. As for Christopher Walken, when does he not please? He's one of the most intense, engaging, brilliant actors of all time and that's that! Once Walken's on screen, the dynamic completely changes for the better, whether it be a movie of this quality or one of the "Prophecy" sequels. Denis Leary is hilarious as Walken's right hand man whose running gag is the fact that he wears boots made from stingrays. People keep referring to them as "fish boots." He plays the same irritable, pugnacious, f-word-spewing character as in 90 percent of his work, but who cares? Some actors are so good at playing one character that they get away with it no matter how many times it's reprised. Leary is one of those actors. His talents mainly lie in stand-up comedy, so his range isn't that broad. But Leary's good at playing Leary, or an extension of himself, and I'd much rather see him in that role than as, say, a sensitive romantic lead. I loved watching him beat the guy up with a toaster and the other one with a golf club. I love to see Leary do stuff like that. Jay Mohr, a fellow stand-up comedian, is also good mainly at playing that particular role and that's what he does in this movie. Not a big stretch for him either, but it's what he's good at. It was also cool to see "Everybody Loves Raymond's" Brad Garrett in a more serious role, and using language he can't use on TV. The whole film is basically filled with 4-letter words, but it fits the testosterone-filled tone, being that the cast is predominantly male. There is as much excitement as there is dark humor. Director Peter O'Fallon balances those elements nicely. And I loved the theme song over the credit sequence. For some reason, it's still pounding in my head. My score: 7 (out of 10)

This ranks fairly highly on my all-time bad film list. It's one of only two or three movies I have actually stopped watching half-way through. I just knew that if I sat through any more, I would really want those minutes back at the end of my life. Horrific writing included completely unbelievable situations and preposterous dialogue. No suspension of disbelief whatsoever. I didn't buy it at all.

This really was an awful movie. Serious over-acting (ex. Jay Mohr ) or just plain bad acting. The plot made really no sense whatsoever. Not even a good rental.

Spoilers herein. Tarantino is greatly overrated to my mind. This film isn't great, but it is better than `Dogs.' Tarantino's innovation was to add a more self-aware cinematic quotation of prior films. The humor over violence is just an instance of that new distance with the viewer. Seemed novel at the time, but since so many people are doing this better, now it seems rather trivial. `Kings' is a very simple thing, done well. The ensemble works. The camerawork and editing isn't very adventuresome, but does do some impressive continuous shots. I think it is worth seeing for the framing. The plot twists the requisite number of times in the last 15 minutes. But it is the simplest and cheapest kind of twist: the doublecross. It is a shame that they cut the women so severely. I think more development on that side would have made this seem less derivative. Is it art? No. Neither is `Dogs.'

I don't get it. Everyone raves about this movie, but I found it predictable and trite. It seemed much longer than it was. I have no objection to long movies, just short movies that seem long. Overall, I think it fails to live up to its undeserved hype.

Carlo Bartolucci / Charlie Barret (Christopher Walken) is a former mob boss. He finds Avery Chasten (Henry Thomas) and Max Minot (Sean Patrick Flanery) sitting at his regular restaurant table. He starts talking to the young men and Brett Campbell (Jay Mohr) joins them. He wants to have a night out with the boys. Instead, they kidnap him after a struggle. Medical student T. K. (Jeremy Sisto) is there to treat him. Avery's sister Elise had been kidnapped for a $2 million ransom. They want his connections and money to save her. The kidnappers have cut off her finger and the boys cut off his finger in kind. Lono Veccio (Denis Leary) is Bartolucci's bodyguard. The guys have taken Bartolucci to their unsuspecting friend Ira Reder (Johnny Galecki)'s family home. This tries very hard to be like Tarantino. A finger is cut off pretty quickly. It's got Walken with a motley crew of young actors. The potential is there but it's all wrong. The guys take him from someplace public with lots of witnesses and bring him to Ira's home without telling him. Why? What if Ira shows up? What if Ira's parents show up? What if anybody shows up? It's a bad plan. The incompetence is really annoying. Then there is the reveal. It doesn't really make sense that they kidnap Bartolucci. None of these friends are appealing characters. They bother me a lot with their argumentative idiocy. That's its most glaring failing compared to Tarantino's electric dialog. The problem with this movie is how obvious it fails to hit its target and the failure is really bothersome.

I was surprised with Suicide Kings. In the same spirit as Something Wild and The Usual Suspects, this movie is not about the end, but getting you there. The film is well told, keeping you on the edge wanting to know "who's on the inside". Unlike some movies where the wrap up at the end seems too improbable, this one works and works well. I was unsure of what the movie would be like and so my expectations were low. At the end I had done an 180 degree turn. I was impressed. I look forward to watching this again and picking up on all the clues as to who was doing what and seeing the small details from the start.

Perhaps if this movie had been better structured I might for one minute have bought its premise, but as it was I found the whole thing laughable. I couldn't imagine how any of the characters would have come up with their idiotic plan, since it made no sense. And since the characters are poorly introduced and inadequately developed, I didn't understand any of their motivations for going along with it. I've never been a fan of Quentin Tarantino, but this film made me admit that he at least has a sense of pacing and timing. "Suicide Kings" injects bits of Tarantinoesque humor in the most inappropriate places, and goes off into meaningless tangents that never add anything to the storyline. It also tried to make suspenseful moments out of nothing, merely by throwing in some anxious music. Some of the acting is okay, e.g., Denis Leary's performance as a Mafia thug, but mostly the actors are powerless to make anything out of the foolish script. Christopher Walken is the most grounded person in the movie--and that's a scary thought.

Kidnap films have been made for decades. (Check out Ransom for a typical example.) In a way Suicide Kings starts out like a low budget "B" movie of the 40's and 50's. The beginning is obvious and a bit overly dramatic. But this is when Suicide Kings began to surprise me. Christopher Walken in an amazing performance shows that an actor can be the center of a film while sitting down for almost an hour. Also, this movie pulls no punches in showing organized crime/mob violence. Yet, the vigilante college kidnapers are shown in such a harsh manner that after a while you begin to root for the mobsters over the ivy league losers. It's an amazing turn around. On top of this there is some wicked humor in the film not unlike Goodfellas. Denis Leary as he was in the Ref is great as the abusive and befuddled thug. What was very satisfying was that the ending was just right. Finally a movie that does not have a ridiculous happy ending tacked on to it. Suicide Kings is brutal in its logic but the story makes sense from start to finish. Despite its low budget and its routine beginning, this is a very good film.