Suicide Kings Movie Review
There must be few things more satisfying for a great actor than to play a character who is sedated, inebriated, tied up, and bleeding to death AND to know that he's stealing every frame of the movie from five ambulatory young actors. The part of Carlo (“Charles Barrett”) Bartolucci is a piece of cake for Christopher Walken and the subsequent careers of his young co-stars can only benefit from THE acting lesson of their lives they receive in Suicide Kings. Lisa Chasten (Laura Harris) has been kidnapped, and brother Avery (Henry Thomas) decides to abduct mobster Bartolucci with the help of Lisa's boyfriend Max (Sean Patrick Flanery) and their friends Brett (Jay Mohr) and T.K. (Jeremy Sisto). The four hold him hostage in the summer house of their friend, Ira Reder (the terrific Johnny Galecki), who doesn't know about the plan, but arrives home unexpectedly. All Ira does is kvetch about how he's going to get in trouble with his parents, a minor point after T.K. has cut off one of the hostage's fingers. The plan is to get Lisa back with Bartolucci's influence. A call to his lawyer Marty (Cliff DeYoung) initiates the $2 million ransom raising process, and a second call to his henchman Lono Vecchio (Denis Leary) starts the operation to locate Lisa. Even a bombed and disabled Bartolucci is still the ultimate shrewd operator, and he quickly discerns that one of his abductors was also involved in Lisa's kidnapping. He plays the friends off against each other, which isn't terribly hard to do. The captors screw up left and right, Bartolucci simmers with calculated deadliness, and we can't wait to see what's going to happen next. Suicide Kings is an absorbing, satisfying, very funny way to spend a Friday night. And Christopher Walken is nothing less than Movieland's quintessential Magician. Who needs a zillion dollar action sequence when Walken can take our breath away with a subtle glint in his eyes?
1997 (R) 106m/C Christopher Walken, Jay Mohr, Henry Thomas, Sean Patrick Flanery, Denis Leary, Jeremy Sisto, Johnny Galecki, Cliff DeYoung, Laura San Giacomo, Nina Siemaszko, Frank Medrano, Brad Garrett, Lisanne Falk, Laura Harris; D: Peter O'Fallon; W: Josh McKinney, Gina Goldman, Wayne Rice; C: Christopher Baffa; M: Graeme Revell, Tim Simonec. VHS, DVD