Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!
IslandGuru Who payed the critics
Nonureva Really Surprised!
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Lee Eisenberg Peter O'Fallon's "Suicide Kings" is sort of a combination of Quentin Tarantino and "The Godfather". Christopher Walken plays a mob boss who gets kidnapped by a bunch of high-society young men and held hostage while one of them's sister is getting held hostage...but all might not be what it seems.A criticism that I've sometimes heard of movies like this is that there's no redeeming character. I hate to say it but sometimes that's an accurate reflection of reality. Whether it's politics (Syriana), organized crime (Goodfellas) or something else, there are times when every character is a slimeball. That's the case here. I liked how Walken's character started playing the other characters' minds. One gets the feeling that, having spent his life in a world of sleaze, he knows when something's up.Among the other cast , there's Denis Leary. I've liked every movie in which I've seen him. There's also Laura San Giacomo (the sister in "Sex, Lies and Videotape"). And then we have some surprises: Henry Thomas (Elliott in "E.T."), Johnny Galecki (Leonard on "The Big Bang Theory"*), Jeremy Sisto (Billy on "Six Feet Under") and Brad Garrett (of "Everybody Loves Raymond", which I've never seen). Cliff DeYoung used to be a member of a rock group that performed with the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. What a combo.Basically, it's not a great movie, but it's an enjoyable one. Every cast member puts on a good performance. I recommend the movie.*Today is actually both his birthday and that of his co-star Kunal Nayyar.
napierslogs The "Suicide Kings" believe that when one crime is committed, the best way to solve it is to commit a couple more crimes. This sets up the dark comedy execution. It begins with crimes, corruption and enough intrigue to keep moving forward.Christopher Walken is Charlie, the mob boss with connections, a shady past and even shadier make-up. Avery (Henry Thomas)'s sister is kidnapped, and then Avery, Max (Sean Patrick Flannery) and Brett (Jay Mohr) kidnap Charlie with the help of aspiring doctor T.K. (Jeremy Sisto). Ira (Johnny Galecki) unfortunately knows none of these goings-ons even though they decided to use his father's house. They are all smart and privileged, but also blindly stubborn and confident. Taking place almost entirely in one house and one bloody night, everything is put in question.As the characters develop with the plot, they start learning more about themselves just as we do, and there is a surprising amount of thought and introspection to the "Suicide Kings". It is a crime drama thriller with a liberal use of dark comedy and just so well written that I can't even fault it for being mostly male-driven.
Robert J. Maxwell A sort of frat boy and his girl friend get lost in uptown New York and the girl is kidnapped. Two million dollars in ransom is demanded. Her finger arrives in the mail. (I think this is what happens anyway. I missed a few critical minutes at the beginning.) The frat boy organizes a handful of his upper-middle-class friends and they manage to kidnap a notorious capo, Christopher Walken, who is either behind the kidnapping or knows who is, and so will help them retrieve the rest of her body, minus the finger. They chloroform him and take him to an empty mansion on Long Island where, to convince him they are hard-hearted and determined, instead of the inexperienced nudniks they are, they remove his finger while he's unconscious.Walken wakes up in this large house belonging to one of the preppies and the rest of the film is taken up with his trying to get the girl back from the wheelchair he is duct-taped into.Doesn't sound too promising. It's mostly shot on one set, like a filmed play. But three things lift this effort above the level I'd expected.One is the working out of the plot, which has several unexpected pirouettes. The kidnapping is pegged by the mob almost immediately as "an inside job," which is about as far as attorney-client privilege will allow me to go.The second is the dialog, which has innumerable sparkles in it -- and that's critical because it's a talky movie. Some lines are very amusing. Some are dead serious. Here's one of the funnier ones. Walken is taped into his chair and has to pee. So how will it be managed? Do they free his hands, something they're understandable loathe to do, or does somebody unzip Walken and make sure he evacuates his bladder in a tidy manner? ("Aim him good!", cries the chubby little kid whose parents own the mansion.) While this mission is being discussed, Walken contributes his point of view. "If somebody is going to be holding hands with my ****, can I at least get a drink first? I'm not asking for dinner and dancing. I'm not asking for a commitment." The third is the acting. Man, do these guys put it across. Especially notable are Dennis Leary as Walken's chief agent, and Walken himself. Neither steps wrong. Christopher Walken is a marvelous actor. He's confined to a chair. He's bled half to death. He's strung out behind some analgesics and booze. And his set expression is one that artfully blends boredom with mild interest in the proceedings. At times he speaks like the soul of reason amidst these adolescent collisions of will. The director, Peter O'Fallon, gives us multiple reaction shots of Walker placidly watching the arguments and barbs being thrown back and forth by his captors, and they're funny as hell.But don't be misled. It's not ALL talk. There's action too for the aficionados. Several shootings take place and while none of them results in a bath tub full of gore and splattered brains, none is done for laughs either.It's well written, nicely directed, and the cast is fine.
sideburnmikeguitar This is a fun movie about a kidnapping gone wrong. The kidnappers are generally spoiled, rich "kids" in their 20s who trick an old mobster, played by Christopher Walken, into taking a ride with them. They hold him hostage and he cleverly manipulates them to fight with each other. there's nothing too dark, and the dialog and dynamic with the younger characters is really solid. Dennis Leary's mobster role is funny and angry and brutal in just the right doses.***Possible spoiler*** Most of the way through the film I was convinced there would be a killer climax. The problem is that the story is leading you to believe that there's an "inside man..." but when you find out who it really is, it seems misleading. The motivations behind the actions of the kidnappers don't quite add up, particularly Avery and Max's interaction. The flashback sections of the story lead you to think one way, but don't come off as too convincing. On the other hand, the movie's good at digging into these different personalities and Walken, Leary and the Ira character are really compelling. (It seems a lot of people didn't like Ira but he's pretty a very important foil for the others and the film would lose a lot without him. Plus, he's awfully convincing as the uptight kiss-up geek.) The twists are pretty cool, and not too tricky to get, just a little contradictory when you consider all the different ways the movie could have gone. But this was the way to make it interesting and not so obvious.Well worth renting or picking up used.
