Synopsis
After Faye and her psychotic boyfriend, Vince, successfully rob a mob courier, Faye decides to abscond with the loot. She heads to Reno, where she hires feckless private investigator Jack Andrews to help fake her death. He pulls the scheme off and sets up Faye with a new identity, only to have her skip out on him without paying. Jack follows her to Vegas and learns he's not the only one after her. Vince has discovered that she's still alive.
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Cast
- Val KilmerJack Andrews
- Joanne WhalleyFay Forrester
- Michael MadsenVince A. Miller
- Nick DimitriMarty
- Pat MulliganSammy
- Robert SchuchCollection Agent #1
- Duane TuckerCollection Agent #2
- Molly FlaneginGossipy Motel Clerk
- Dominic DininoRest Stop Little Boy
- Daniel DorseRest Stop Father
Recommendations
- 75
San Francisco Chronicle
The picture looks like it cost about 3 cents to make, but it packs a nice punch, with tense moments, unexpected turns and a hot performance by Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. [30 Oct 1989, p.F3] - 75
The Seattle Times
The first-time director and co-writer, John Dahl, has a veteran's assurance. He knows exactly what he wants from the actors, how to stage the tricky action, how to keep the plot comprehensible, how to use the Nevada/Arizona locations to suggest the aridness of the characters' lives. He doesn't break any new ground with Kill Me Again, but he does establish himself as a filmmaker to watch. [04 May 1990, p.3] - 70
Variety
The tale of a down-and-out detective and a seamy femme fatale is a thoroughly professional little entertainment. - 60
Los Angeles Times
Kill Me Again doesn't look like the noir classics; instead of black-and-white, it's shot in slightly muddy color with vagrant green tints. But it feels like them. It has that nerve-jangling mix of pungent cynicism and thick gobs of pseudo-Expressionist style. It's not brilliant or original, but it's still a lean, fast, wide-awake sleeper. - 50
Time Out
Derived from assorted Hitchcocks and noir classics, the tortuous storyline of writer-director Dahl's determinedly sordid thriller has its moments, but the whole thing is fatally scuppered by the Kilmer pairing. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Well-crafted and competently acted, Kill Me Again is anything but a terrible film; however, like so many other films that have struggled mightily to pay homage to the great films noir of the past, it fails to come to life on its own terms.
