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

America has the best justice money can buy- meaning gentry that pay for the privilege of justice receive it and normal citizens will see justice only by pure accident. Here is a normal citizen who served his time but continues to be harassed by police- a common tactic of pigs- since they are too stupid to be detectives- they make their informants do all the dirty work of investigation under penalty of return to prison on some lies and setups-ya know- who they gonna believe? Me or you? This is the framework this movie operates in- the reality that most cops and lawyers are total scum that need two neat in the back of the head, and justice is a fairy tale in America.Add in a little action jackson moments to spice it up and we have a watchable movie that is reasonably OK- not stellar- but watchable to the finish and a decent job of acting by our lead. This is one of the few action flicks that actually tries to do some acting- our lead does a great job- his supporting actors do OK- but not great.All in all- I would watch this movie for a matinée by myself. One of the humorous things in this movie is you see Nicholas Cage bulked up as a guido in a disco.

(There are Spoilers) Trying to go straight and raise a family ex-convict & car thief Jimmy Killmartin, David Caruso, gets back into his chosen profession by trying to keep his sleazy cousin Ronnie, Michael Rapaport, from getting his brains beat out by his demanding and not too kindly boss Little Junior, Nicolas Cage. Ronnie wants Jimmy to drive an 18 wheeler loaded with stolen cars for his chop-shop business. As you would expect Jimmy gets caught by a cop sting that results in one of the NYPD detectives Calvin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson, getting a bullet in his head but miraculously surviving.Even though Jimmy was set up and deserted by Ronnie he lives by an unbroken and moral code not to rat on any of his fellow hoods. But that's quickly broken when Jimmy's wife Bev, Helen Hunt,is killed in a car crash that Ronnie was responsible for. It turned out that instead of looking after Bev and her and Jimmy's infant daughter Corinna, Lindsay J. Wrinn, Ronnie was taking advantage of Bev while Jimmy was locked up. Also the day she was killed Ronnie got Bev drunk and took her home to his place for both fun and games. Bev waking up from her alcohol-induced sleep ran out of Ronnie's place into her car and, still being under the influence, drove into an oncoming truck killing herself.Realizing what Ronnie did Jimmy agrees with the State prosecutor Frank Zioli, Stanley Tucci, to rat on his fellow car-thieves at a closed door grand jury hearing implicating even himself in number of car robberies but slyly keeps Ronnie's name out of it. The news of the car-theft gang being ratted out by someone from the inside gets back to Little Junior from his mobbed-up lawyer Jack Gold, Anthony Heald. It's then agreed that it had to be Ronnie, since he was the only member who wasn't indicted, who ratted on his gang and in no time at all Little Junior pay him a friendly visit with a half dozen of his goons that turns out to be Ronnie's funeral.Having served his time Jimmy is released from Sing Sing Prison but the aggressive State procurator Zioli has plans for him to get Little Junior in a sting operation which will result in him getting a federal judgeship. Going to Little Junior's Baby Cakes strip club Jimmy has a wire planted on him by the police in order to get evidence. Jimmy gets friendly with the mob boss only to be later shaken down in the club's bathroom to see if he's working for the cops or not. Jimmy realizing what was going down threw away his wire before Little Junior and his boys got to him. As crazy as Little Junior is he still strikes me as a pretty smart cookie being able to sense if he's being set up in a sting operation, with a wiretap. But later he act's so stupidly that he guns down in cold blood an undercover federal agent Omar, Ving Khames, right in front of a shocked Jimmy who's got a wire on him. This in the end can lead to Little Junior to be indited and arrested for murder one. With Jimmy having the incriminating tape it looked like a slam dunk to convict Little Junior but his lawyer Jack Gold comes to his rescue having the evidence thrown out on a technicality; Little junior killed a federal agent thinking that he was hood like himself and even more convincing it was in self-defense! With Little Junior out free Jimmy, who's cover was blown, is now a marked man and with only Det. Hart, who's since become bonded with him, willing to help Jimmy it looks as if it's only a matter of time before he's history. But unknown to Little Junior as well as the double-crossing state procurator Zioli, who promised Jimmy that he and his family would be protected , Jimmy had devised a plan to keep himself alive. And that plan is to use the same method that get him into hot water to get him out of it: the wiretap.The David Caruso came across completely colorless as Jimmy Killmartin showing in most of his scenes almost no emotion at all. The final scene in the movie showed that he, or Jimmy, also wasn't all that bright even though he miraculously survived a assassination attempt on his life. NIcholas Cage as the mob boss Little Junior has a very serious asthma condition but looks and act in the pink of health. He even lifts heavy weights, as well as showgirls, 15 at a time without even breathing hard. Little Junior also viciously beats people up sometimes to death which is very strenuous exorcise for an asthmatic. With the only sign of his asthma condition is the occasionally asthmatic aerosol spry that he uses to keep himself from possibly suffocating to death.Samual L. Jackson as Det. Hart is totally wasted as the good cop who risk his job and life in setting up his bosses in the federal government and NYPD. I also found it odd that Jimmy's wiretaps on both Little Junior and prosecutor Zioli had such an impact of bringing them both down to earth, Little Junior in jail and Zioli facing a serious ethics charge, that can also put him behind bars. When the wiretaps were done without a court order not only making them illegal but even criminal on Jimmy's part! Just earlier in the movie a court ordered wiretap that resulted in getting evidence of the murder of a federal agent, by Little Junior, was thrown out of the same courtroom on the most flimsiest of legal technicalities. But these totally illegal and uncalled for wiretaps, on Little Junior and Zioli, were allowed to stand!

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.