Suicide Kings

Starring: Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Henry Thomas, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, Frank Medrano, Brad Garrett, Cliff De Young, Johnny Galecki, Louis Lombardi, Nathan Dana Aldrich
Directed by: Peter O'Fallon
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of friends kidnap a Mafia boss (Christopher Walken) hoping to force him to help them rescue a kidnapped woman.

Review:

Tim: Suicide Kings is kind of an odd movie. On the one hand, it's a kidnapping movie- a thrilling, dramatic story. On the other hand, there's definitely some comedic elements to the film as well. Some of this works well- the small moments of levity help break up the tension we experience in the rest of the movie. However, some of the comedy doesn't work. Is this meant to be taken seriously, or is it all for a laugh? The tone of the movie felt off- mostly it feels like what we're watching is deadly serious, although that doesn't stay consistent throughout the movie. This is one of a few reasons why this movie isn't quite good enough.

Now, I do want to stress how much I enjoyed Christopher Walken in his role. It's an odd role- he spends most of the film tied to a chair. And yet, what Walken misses out on in locomotion, he makes up for with a solid performance that draws your attention to him in every scene. It helps that Walken is easily the best actor in the film. His performance is mysterious and fascinating. Walken is easily the biggest reason to see this film. I also loved the performance of Denis Leary. His role was so strange- he's a supporting player and spends most of the movie not doing anything all that important to the main story line. And yet, his scenes are so compelling because he brings his own unique brand of comedy to those scenes. It's strange to think time that is essentially wasted by pulling our attention from the main story for no real reason, could be so entertaining. It's a weird quirk of this film that Leary's scenes are often quite enjoyable and humorous, even though they are a bit superfluous.

Now, as good as Walken and Leary are, they don't get the most screen time. A collection of dudes takes up most of our attention and they are consistently less effective. Jay Mohr was fine, although his performance lacked subtlety. Jeremy Sisto felt like he was still figuring the whole acting thing out, but his generally decent. Johnny Galecki had moments, but I wouldn't call his performance great. Henry Thomas was eminently boring. His performance was quite bland. Sean Patrick Flanery felt out of his depth. We spend most of the film with these five men and none of them are good enough. Sure, they're fine in their roles, but this movie needed more from each and every one of them. The film is hurt because the supporting players are so much better than these five. Brad Garrett added a solid supporting turn, which just further illustrated that the five main characters weren't up to snuff.

The story itself is fine. It tries to be this twisting, turning plot that keeps us guessing. I suppose there are some moments that are unexpected, but the story is never as clever as it thinks it is. It kind of felt like a screenplay that wanted to be smarter than the audience but never is. It's humorous to compare this film to Wild Things. That movie consistently proved itself to be several steps ahead of the audience and floors us with its unexpected developments. This one tries but never quite gets there.

Suicide Kings isn't a bad movie. To a certain extent, I appreciated how unique the film was. Some of the odd choices pay off, but many of them don't. There are some worthwhile scenes and I was fairly entertained throughout the movie. However, the film as a whole just isn't good enough. It's not memorable enough or compelling enough. It was fun to watch because it's so different than our preconceived notions, but many of the gambles the film made don't pan out.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Wild Things, Poolhall Junkies