I was in the mood for a good action movie last night, so I spent a long time scanning the shelves at my local video store in search of a decent-sounding movie that I hadn’t seen yet. I finally settled on 1995’s Kiss of Death, mostly because it featured a solid cast of proven actors like Nicolas Cage, David Caruso, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport, Helen Hunt, Ving Rhames, and Stanely Tucci. I’d never even heard of the movie before, but thought it would be a winning pick.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Caruso stars as ex-con Jimmy Kilmartin who is out on parole and trying to earn an honest living for the sake of his wife Bev (Hunt) and their daughter Rosie (Kathryn Erbe). But one night Jimmy’s cousin Ronnie (Rapaport) comes by to ask for a huge favor: one of his driver’s bailed on him and Ronnie needs Jimmy to take the guy’s place. Jimmy doesn’t want anything to do with driving an 18-wheeler full of stolen merchandise, but Ronnie begs him until he finally gives in.
Of course the job goes terribly wrong and Jimmy gets picked up by the cops. He won’t rat out his cousin, so he ends up getting three more years in prison. However, after Bev unexpectedly dies in a car accident, Jimmy will do anything he can to shorten his sentence so he can get out and take care of Rosie. As a result, he cuts a deal with Detective Hart (Jackson) to become an informant in an effort to take down a local crime boss named Little Junior (Cage).
From there, Kiss of Death turns into a pretty standard thriller, delivering they types of scenes you’d expect to find in this kind of movie. First Jimmy has to earn Little Junior’s trust. Then, after Jimmy thinks he’s in, there comes a moment where it looks like Little Junior suspects him after all and his cover might be blown. Finally, Jimmy is able to take out Little Junior and get some semblance of a life back at the end.
My Reaction: From what I understand, this movie was a remake of a 1947 film of the same name. I’ve never seen the original, so my opinion here is based solely on the 1995 version.
I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with the way Kiss of Death turned out. I liked the beginning and thought there was a lot of potential there, but things seemed to go downhill after Ronnie was killed and the whole story focused only on Jimmy. I’m not a Caruso hater by any means, but I just didn’t think he was a strong enough lead actor to carry this film and the script wasn’t interesting enough on its own merits to compensate for Caruso’s shortcomings. So we’re left with a dull script and a dull lead, which obviously doesn’t add up to much fun.
I also thought Nicolas Cage was way, way over the top as Little Junior. I don’t know if that’s how the character was played in the original, but it was so outlandish here that I didn’t know if I was supposed to laugh at the guy or not.
Overall, I found myself bored with Kiss of Death for three-quarters of the film and give it just 6.0 stars out of 10. If you’ve made it the past 12 years without seeing this movie, I don’t think there’s any reason to rush out and rent it now.
I need new furniture for my home office. I know I’ve been saying this for a while now, but in typical fashion, I haven’t actually made any purchases yet. For starters, I want a proper desk, as I’m currently just sitting at a computer hutch that doesn’t give me very much room for all my stuff. Second, I need a new chair. I’ve been using the same one for the last seven years, and it’s literally falling apart now. Seriously, I have duct tape on it!