Suicide Kings (1997)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Chris W

  
  In the wake of Quentin Tarantino's massive success, many people tried to cash in on the formula, and the world was subjected to a slew of imitators, ripoffs, and clones. While this film is in that vein, it is one of the amiable and enjoyable, and has a bit of its own fun and… More
  In the wake of Quentin Tarantino's massive success, many people tried to cash in on the formula, and the world was subjected to a slew of imitators, ripoffs, and clones. While this film is in that vein, it is one of the amiable and enjoyable, and has a bit of its own fun and slick entertainment to offer. It's just a shame that it has fallen by the wayside and has become seemingly all but forgotten, When his sister is kidnapped and held for a $2,000,000, and his dad isn't able to offer up the money, priviledged kid Avery and a group of his friends come up with the idea of doing a kidnapping of their own: the take retired mob figure Charlie Barrett hostage, hole up in their uptight friend Ira's parents's home while their away, and force Charlie to use his contacts to get the girl back. What they don't count on is the possibility of being in over their heads, especially when Charlie has his own ideas about what's going on. The set up is a decent one, and provides some great opportunities for a good cast to do their thing, and do it fairly decently. The film has crime and thriller elements, and a few scenes filled with well executed tension, but it's really more of a dark comedy. The main focus of the film is on the group of young guys as they try to coax Charlie into helping them, who begins to size them up, get inside their heads, and show them just how unprepared they are to deal with what they've gotten themselves into. Along the way we also check in on the girl's kidnappers from time to time, as well as follow the exploits of Charlie's lawyer who enlists the aid his client's bodyguard Lono- a short tempered hitman who travels all over New York trying to hunt down Charlie's captors. This is some fun stuff, and though it has shades of QT all over it, it's still quite enjoyable and entertaining. Veteran television director Peter O'Fallon made his feature film debut here, and it's not a bad job at all. A little rough around the edges maybe, but passable. Where this film really works though, is in the casting and the perforamnces. Christopher Walken shines as the captive Charlie, and his deadpan delivery filled with occasional menace makes for some priceless moments. It's really fun seeing him match wits with a group full of youngsters including Henry Thomas (little Elliott from E.T.) as Avery, a pre-Boondock Saints Sean Patrick Flanery, Jay Mohr, and Jeremy Sisto as Avery's friends and accomplices, a post-Roseanne but pre-Big Bang Theory Johnny Galecki as their neurotic friend Ira. Denis Leary shines as the anger prone thug Lono, and a fair amount of the film's humor is because of him alone. The film's got some neat ideas, and dialogue is pretty sharp, but it's not without its problems. The film's plot gets really twisty, turny, and complex, and becomes rather muddled, convoluted, and messy at times. It also feels a little self consciously hip, and it feels like the film is going out of it's way to be cool and it comes off as forced instead of natural. Also, I think the times when the film shifts focus away from Charlie and the youngsters could have been handled a lot batter, and maybe more could have been done with them. Overall though, this is a rather okay film. I've got a bit of a personal attachment to it as it played a role in my becoming the film buff I am today, so I can't be too hard on it, but even then, it's no masterwork or anything. It's just a shame that the film didn't get more attention. I mean, of all the films that tried to cash in on Qt's success, this is easily one of the better ones.

• Phil H

  
  Odd title but a decent mobster/thriller comedy with the man who has played a million mob bosses at the heart of the show as always. Without Walken this would probably have been very very average and not as amusing, Walken is so dead pan and shifty its eerie, I dunno how he does it but… More
  Odd title but a decent mobster/thriller comedy with the man who has played a million mob bosses at the heart of the show as always. Without Walken this would probably have been very very average and not as amusing, Walken is so dead pan and shifty its eerie, I dunno how he does it but his gangster performances never get weak no matter how many he does or how repetitive they are. Rest of the cast are your average straight to DVD filler types alongside Leary who in the mid 90's was pretty popular and not bad as a hardass but at the same time a slightly mouthy, annoying and arrogant git too. The plot is actually quite good and serves all manner of good moments both tense and giggly as we build towards the predictable twist in the plot....just a matter of who to choose. Has some dark moments and plenty of gallows humour but quite a sad sombre ending.

• Martin S

  
  It was good. But...what more is it to it? You might like it (I'm not mentioning any names)...And you might say that I was sleeping...But I didn't miss a lot. It was nothing special. A good movie. ...And it should obviously be called "Kings of Diamond"

• Bruce B

  
  This is a excellent film, Christopher Walken Plays a crime boss who is kidnapped for a ransom. Johnny Galecki who plays Ira did an outstanding job and ads all the comedy to the film. Its an enjoyable movie that?s hard to put into any category. The rookie gang of 5 take Walken finger… More
  This is a excellent film, Christopher Walken Plays a crime boss who is kidnapped for a ransom. Johnny Galecki who plays Ira did an outstanding job and ads all the comedy to the film. Its an enjoyable movie that?s hard to put into any category. The rookie gang of 5 take Walken finger off and have him duct taped to a chair, mean while word comes to Walken that its an inside job so which one of the 5 are in on it. A real twisted ending, but I will not give it away you will have to see it. 4 stars.

• Anthony L

  
  This is a great little crime drama that flew well below the radar on its release. Highly recommended!

• Aaron N

  
  Charlie Barret: Guys, if I don't bleed to death pretty soon, I'm gonna die of boredom. 3 things that make this work well. 1. Chris Walken (of course) 2. Unnecessary, yet hilarious banter between the young costars 3. Dennis Leary in full asshole mode as a hitman. Good… More
  Charlie Barret: Guys, if I don't bleed to death pretty soon, I'm gonna die of boredom. 3 things that make this work well. 1. Chris Walken (of course) 2. Unnecessary, yet hilarious banter between the young costars 3. Dennis Leary in full asshole mode as a hitman. Good stuff. Christopher Walken stars as a mobster who is kidnapped by a bunch of rich kids with a plan of their own. One of these kids' girlfriend has been kidnapped, and so they want to use Walken's connections to hopefully find the kidnappers and meet their demands. This setup provides the opportunity for Walken to get under all of these characters skin. He is tied to a chair, with his finger cut off, but he still is able to use his verbose nature to figure things out for himself, and outwit his kidnappers. Meanwhile, Denis Leary is a hitman, going all over New York on his own misadventures looking for these rich kids to rescue his boss. The movie works for the three reasons I listed above, along with the fact that this is a very entertaining story full of dark humor, fine performances, and some decent twists. Lono: Can you guess what these boots are made out of? - Stingray. Charlie Barret: Your wearing fish boots?

• Tim S

  
  Truly underrated classic!

• Curtis L

  
  Walken is amazing. THe rest of film needs some work.

• Leigh R

  
  Laugh-out-loud funny and a surprise twist at the end. Fantastic.

• Al S

  
  A razor sharp and wickedly funny suspense thriller. Packs plenty of twist and laughs. Christopher Walken is brilliant. Denise Leary is teriffic. Its the Usual suspects meets the Reservoir dogs. Plenty of fun to go around.

• Nicolas K

  
  No as exciting as one would imaging with a cast like this one.

• Curt C

  
  The end credits were in order of appearance, so in some small way, the doorman got top billing over Christopher Walken.

• nefnie l

  
  College preps kidnap a mobster. Christopher Walken is awesome in a role that confines him to a chair for most of it. He enjoys toying with his captors and slowly driving them apart. Great twist at the end.

• matt s

  
  Complete utter crap.

• Sarah P

  
  A pretty interesting movie

• Nicky M

  
  I thought it was a decent movie that tried to hard to be Tarantinoesque but it has Walken and Leary. They make any movie better and I did enjoy it.

• Krystle C

  
  Christopher Walken definitely steals the show, but it's a great movie throughout as you watch the interactions, transformations and nervousness of the ensemble. Good twists and turns.

Read all 17 featured audience ratings