Synopsis
Jimmy Kilmartin is an ex-con trying to stay clean and raise a family. When his cousin Ronnie causes him to take a fall for driving an illegal transport of stolen cars, Detective Calvin Hart is injured and Jimmy lands back in prison. In exchange for an early release, he is asked to help bring down a local crime boss named 'Little Junior' Brown. However, he's also sent undercover by Detective Hart to work with Little Junior and infiltrate his operations. As soon as Little Junior kills an undercover Federal agent with Jimmy watching, the unscrupulous DA and the Feds further complicate his life.
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Cast
- David CarusoJimmy Kilmartin
- Nicolas CageLittle Junior Brown
- Samuel L. JacksonCalvin Hart
- Helen HuntBev Kilmartin
- Kathryn ErbeRosie Kilmartin
- Stanley TucciFrank Zioli
- Michael RapaportRonnie Gannon
- Ving RhamesOmar
- Philip Baker HallBig Junior Brown
- Anthony HealdJack Gold
Recommendations
- 100
San Francisco Chronicle
Kiss of Death was directed by Barbet Schroeder ("Single White Female") in the fashion of a creepily smirking cat toying with a particularly appealing mouse. - 88
Boston Globe
With keen-edged direction by Barbet Schroeder and a Richard Price screenplay loaded with venomous savvy, Kiss of Death is the most high-powered and brutal New York gangster movie since "GoodFellas." [21 Apr 1995, p.41] - 83
Entertainment Weekly
The movie’s streetwise screenwriter, Richard Price, knows characters like this do exist — but only an actor like Cage can bring them off. - 80
Washington Post
Price's script is saturated in grungy, darkly comic detail, full of left turns and double-double-crosses, and Schroeder's carefully crafted, patient pacing is refreshing—he gradually builds tension and dread, making the confrontations truly suspenseful and the outlandish action scenes more jarring and memorable. - 75
Baltimore Sun
You feel yourself sinking deeper and deeper into a whole universe that's been put together with almost anthropological intricacy and feels convincing to its tiniest detail. [20 Apr 1995] - 67
Austin Chronicle
Schroeder's film is fun to watch, even when it's being predictable or brutal, but its memory is nearly gone the next day. - 60
Empire
Well made, but not entirely successful ensemble thriller. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
There is plot and more plot in Kiss of Death. By the time it's over you may wish you had taken notes, to keep track of who is doing what, and with which, and to whom.
