Suicide Kings' deserves a second look

When a DVD is reduced to $10, it usually means one of two things: it's in the Warner Brothers/MGM bin of "movies that everyone owns, so who cares if they're cheap," or it's a reasonably bad movie. However, occasionally a sleeper drifts in, unsupported by its studio and dropped in the cheapo bin for you to dig and find. Such is Suicide Kings, a movie that came and went nowhere in theaters, but deserves a second look.

The plot of Suicide Kings is recycled Tarantino: five rich boys kidnap a mob boss (Christopher Walken) in the hopes that he can free one of the boys' kidnapped sister. But as we learn more details and watch the way the kids react to each other, the mob boss starts unraveling them and the mystery.

Walken is a national treasure. Here is a man who, though tied to a chair, commands your attention in scene after scene. He exudes calm, coolness and control. He talks rings around everyone with nary a hand gesture.

Of course things aren't what they seem. Of course one of the five guys is in on the deal. And of course Denis Leary shows up as yet another supposed badass, ranting and shooting people. The twists that come, while hard to pin down initially, aren't as surprising as the movie thinks they are.

But, again, one comes back to Walken in the chair. Half the fun of Suicide Kings is watching Walken unravel the plot fast than we do. Turning the tables is a staple of the thriller, but when it's Christopher Walken, major attention must be paid. Every moment he is onscreen is electric, and he brings out the best in the younger actors. Of these, the stand out is Jay Mohr as the kid who insists on bringing a gun to the party. So, of course, the captors can turn it on each other.

The movie has a slick look and tight direction, and it gets a lot of mileage out of flashing back to events in every character's past. Some of the performances are weak (especially Rosanne's Jason Galiciki, who plays his character as two-dimensionally as possible) and there are one too many characters for what is essentially a filmed play. Most of the action _and all of Walken's scenes_ take place in a mansion, and the extraneous scenes feel... well... extraneous. One of the blessings and curses DVD is the ability to look at alternate endings and see why or why not they were used. This is a rare case where the unused versions actually make the movie play better.

But Christopher Walken in the chair, man. It doesn't get much better than that. And while the movie lacks a good ending or a truly sympathetic character (Walken is badass, but not really a nice guy), it has some of the best acting you'll see on screen. At least the best you'll ever see from a man tied to a chair, for $10 on DVD.



Suicide Kings

Rated R, Christopher Walken, Jay Mohr, Sean Patrick Flannery, Dir: Peter O'Fallon. 1997.