When I saw the 1947 original as a kid, nothing made an impression on me as did Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo. This new version tried to duplicate the menace of that character with Nick Cage playing a somewhat loony gangster, Little Junior Brown. Cage does a great job with the character, but is no Tommy Udo. But that is the gist of this version's problems: casting.We have David Caruso sleepwalking his way through as Jimmy Kilmartin, sort of the hero of the tale. Caruso is a truly one-dimensional actor. He has one expression, one tone of voice, one loss of composure schtick. Despite his flaming red hair, Caruso has virtually no screen presence. Nick Cage would have made a much better Kilmartin.Ving Rhaymes is under-utilized as Junior's gangster customer (and more). He'd have made a compelling Little Junior Brown. Samuel L. Jackson would have been better as the Ving Rhaymes character, and Stanley Tucci(?) and the actor Heald could have improved by switching parts.Helen Hunt (Bev Kilmartin) is killed off early in the movie, as Jimmy's first wife. She'd have been much better as the second wife, who gets to be in the entire movie.Most other casting in KOD is comparably off the mark.The movie is sometimes confusing and complex, yet at the same time draggy and predictable. It all leads to an unsatisfying and anti-climactic ending in which nothing is truly resolved beyond doubt.This is not a totally bad movie, it is just not a very good one. It lacks the grittiness and menace of the original, but adds nothing new to take up the slack except some graphic violence.

My friend made me watch this and I found it to be a surprisingly entertaining movie. It's a remake of a 1940s film noir, but I haven't seen that one. Here David Caruso plays the typical gangster-gone-straight in order to support his new family, but one of his friends (played by Michael Rappaport) pulls him in for one last deal which (unsurprisingly) screws him over big time.The casting here is absolutely phenomenal. The performances by all the lead actors are some of their best: Nicholas Cage, Stanley Tucci, David Caruso and Michael Rappaport all bring serious color to the story. It is clear here that the careful casting makes a big difference. I'd like to say one performance in particular stands out (maybe Nicholas Cage, in one of his best roles ever) but everyone pulls their weight. Michael Rappaport, despite staying in his typical character role, manages to play the most loathsome character in the film! Even the villains have more humanity to them than he does...The story is good too. It's not original, but very well done. Many classic crime twists are provided in ways one doesn't expect and there are some plot points that are only alluded to, not blatantly shown (i.e. the reason certain characters get knocked off, etc.). It also gives us a good rundown on the inside of a corrupt court system which only protects ex-cons if there's a profit to be made.And to top it off, despite the criminal element and violence, there is a cool sense of humor to several scenes. Little Junior's (Nicholas Cage) mourning scene stands out as a highlight. And then the way the movie ends, you'd think you were watching Beethoven or something. Hee hee, and Stanley Tucci was in that one too! It's not some critically acclaimed showboating from the '90s, like American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, and so on, but it is a solid little '90s period piece.6.5

Barbet Schroeder hands us his scariest impression of a violent world since the "Self Portrait" of Idi Amin. Richard Price's script clicks along like a BQE on hardboiled rails. Both are aided by distinctive, urgent characterizations from just about everybody. This is at least as good as the original.There are, of course, many guilty pleasures here. Helen Hunt hit by a truck in the second reel, Michael Rapaport right-crossed to death, and Sam Jackson shot in the face are what genre pictures are all about. It's Godzilla stomping Tokyo, mortar fire at Omaha Beach, a Peacemaker laying out the sheriff - the lurid fulfillment of forbidden wishes. But a good B movie must earn these cheap thrills: a good B movie must entertain the higher faculties to deserve tumbling skyscrapers and spurts of blood. None of Michael Bay earns its shocks. Most of Eastwood doesn't; some of Friedkin, half of Tony Scott, most of Ford, and nearly all of Hawks do. Having proved his ability in the American idioms of the courtroom drama ("Reversal of Fortune") and, to a lesser extent, the stalker picture ("Single White Female"), here Schroeder demands efficiency and style of every technician and artist and delivers a sharp crime thriller.This works because it's the best kind of melodrama. The characters do not make absurd decisions; the plot suits the story, instead of the other way around, as in almost every Schwarzenegger vehicle. No decision is without consequence. Nobody wins, until the very silly last five minutes, by which time the real climax has already occurred. These are bad people in bad situations behaving, for the most part, very badly. There is pathos without sentiment, virtue without idealism, sacrifice without honor. Chiefly there is redemption without cynicism. Ben Hecht would approve. Henry Hathaway would not recognize it as proper American film-making. Perhaps it isn't.David Caruso is as good as he is capable of being in the central role, and the character's plight is sympathetic enough. Caruso is always competent, but hanging a whole film around his neck is a bad call because he's hard to like. (For best use of Caruso, see "King of New York" and "Session 9".) So it's Nicolas Cage's movie in spite of his own deficiencies. Cage's forte is light comedy; he is naturally brilliant at it, but not at the virile heroic stuff he makes all his money on. No matter how big he gets or how hard he stares, his Little Junior isn't as creepy as Widmark's little Tommy Udo. Still Cage's character's unpredictable behavior and inflated physical presence are enough to overpower most of the performances sharing screen time with his. The support puts in a good day's work, though - Hunt is less affected than usual, Jackson less cartoonish, Stanley Tucci less pretentious. They all have Price to thank for credible motivation and clever things to say. They should also thank Schroeder for not being Roger Spottiswoode, Joel Schumacher or George Cosmotos.

You want to know the best joke I've heard lately? The Kiss of Death remake. Despite having great source material to work from (that being Henry Hathaway's 1947 original), Barbet Schroeder's film might as well have been a comedy, as the level of incompetence on display really is mind blowing. The film features a whole range of well known stars, and almost every single one of them is heinously miscast. Nicholas Cage delivers the silliest role of his career as the babyish gangster 'Little Junior'. Cage's character is this film's answer to Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo, but unlike Widmark; Cage just can't do the extreme psychotic, and succeeds only in making a fool of himself. Samuel L. Jackson isn't given room to breathe, while Helen Hunt, Michael Rapaport and Ving Rhames are entirely wasted. Perhaps the biggest casting mistake was giving David Caruso the lead role. It's hard not to laugh while he's trying to look hard, and the ginger actor looks completely ridiculous throughout. The only actor in the entire film that has been well cast is Anthony Heald (Silence of the Lambs' Dr Chilton), who has a very small role as a lawyer. Kiss of the Death is one of the clearest examples of casting with the poster in mind that I've ever seen.The plot follows an unlucky guy who gets arrested after taking 'one last job' as a favour to his friend. While on the inside, he is asked to rat out his accomplices, and but won't. However, he changes his mind when it comes to the end of his sentence (oh yes). What made the original great was that the story was tight, and by concentrating on just a handful of characters; the audience was able to care for their plight. This movie doesn't benefit from that, as the film needs a whole load of characters so that a load of big names can star, and it harms the film as the whole thing is far too convoluted. Not much thought has gone into any scene in this film either, and certain plot threads seem to come out of nowhere; the lead character's relationship with the babysitter being a good example of an idea that the film simply throws at you. You really need to stretch your imagination with this movie, as several things don't make sense; and the fact that all in all, this film is bad ensures that stretching the imagination isn't easy. The ending is similar to that of the original, but here we don't get the impression that it's come about as a result of the characters; and Samuel L. Jackson's last moment on screen throws mud in the eye of the dark tone that a story like this should have. All I can say is that Kiss of Death is actually an apt name for this film, as Barbet Schroeder and co have embraced a good idea and killed it.