- Content: "A Kidnapping Gone Sour"
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What You Need To Know:
In SUICIDE KINGS, Avery and his sister Lisa are rich, college age youth in the Northeast. When Lisa gets kidnapped, Avery rallies his buddies to kidnap mob boss Charlie Barret. Holing up in the vacation house of nervous Ira, they try to persuade Charlie to phone and retrieve Lisa. In time, as the men talk with Charlie, we begin to understand their personalities and roles in this plan. As trust is formed and Charlie goes to work to free Lisa, secrets are revealed which illuminate that the kidnapping was orchestrated by an insider. This news infuriates Charlie, who lives to enact vengeance on the rat who created a fiasco in the name of ransom money and fun.
The dialogue is quick and snappy, and the camera swirls around the room to up the ante of confusion. Every character is well defined, and, as time passes, the kidnapping is revealed to be sinister and cold-hearted. The misnamed SUICIDE KINGS is a small, art house movie with little crossover appeal to main audiences. This claustrophobic, stagy crime thriller begins with an intriguing premise, but contains some confusing scenes and enough violence, nudity and sex couched in a world of corruption to give most any moral moviegoer the willies
Content:
(H, LLL, VV, SS, NN, A, D, M) Humanist worldview of crime & lawlessness using one sin to cover another with a just ending; 65 obscenities & 16 profanities; moderate but gruesome violence including implied cutting off finger, threats with gun, kidnapping, beating, & shooting deaths; implied fornication & images of strip club; upper male nudity & upper female nudity; alcohol use; smoking & drug use; and, lying, cheating & corruption.
More Detail:
A television comedian once said that any movie with Christopher Walken in it should automatically get an R-rating just because he is so creepy looking. Well, the films he stars in usually contain enough immoral material to rightly merit that dubious rating. SUICIDE KINGS is no exception. Containing a cast of young rising stars, this claustrophobic, stagy, talky, crime thriller begins with an intriguing premise, but contains some confusing scenes and enough violence, nudity and sex couched in a world of corruption to give most any moral moviegoer the willies.
Avery Chasten (Henry Thomas) and his sister Lisa (Laura R. Harris) are rich, college age youth in the Northeast. When Lisa gets kidnapped, Avery rallies his buddies to perform a counter kidnap on mob boss Charlie Barret (Christopher Walken). Holing up in the vacation house of a nervous, and hilarious, companion named Ira (Johnny Galecki), they try to persuade Charlie to make a few phone calls and perform his own dirty work to retrieve Lisa. Their first act of persuasion is to cut off one of his fingers to demonstrate that they will do to him what the kidnappers are doing to Lisa until the young woman is recovered.
Charlie is not amused and vows to exact vengeance on all involved. Ira makes it clear to Charlie that he in no way supports this plan. In time, as the young men talk with Charlie, we begin to understand each of their personalities and roles in this imperfect plan. We learn that Lisa had an illicit relationship with T.K. We learn that Brett (Jay Mohr from JERRY MAGUIRE) was the mastermind behind this plan. We learn that one member is in medical school. As trust is formed, and Charlie goes to work to free Lisa, secrets are revealed which illuminate that the kidnapping was orchestrated by an inside mob member. This news infuriates Charlie who lives to enact vengeance on the rat who created a fiasco and a facade in the name of ransom money and fun.
At times, SUICIDE KINGS plays like a David Mamet movie. The dialogue is quick and snappy, and the camera swirls around the room to up the ante of confusion. Every character is well defined, and, as time passes, the kidnapping plan is revealed to be sinister and cold-hearted. The boys are found to be as wicked as Charlie the kidnapper. Their misdeeds do not go unpunished, but that punishment is still the result of Charlie’s anger and not divine retribution.
The misnamed SUICIDE KINGS is a small, art house movie with little crossover appeal to main audiences. It seems to serve primarily as an acting showcase for young talent. Particularly memorable is Johnny Galecki as the very nervous and frustrated Ira. This movie will not make a lot of money, and it shouldn’t. Like LEAVING LAS VEGAS, it is an example of complete corruption without any redemption.
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