Kiss of Death

Kiss of Death summary of box office results, charts and release information and related links.

'Kiss of Death' is a hard-boiled crime movie featuring first-time leading man David Caruso, from TV's 'NYPD Blue,' opposite Nicholas Cage as the weirdest villain since Dennis Hopper slithered into 'Blue Velvet.' The direction is by Barbet Schroeder ('Reversal of Fortune'), the screenplay is by novelist Richard Price (Clockers), it's a loose remake of the 1947 movie where Richard Widmark pushed the wheelchair down the stairs, and with a pedigree like that it shouldn't be disjointed and uncompelling, but it is.

Maybe the lasting symbols of the 1990s are different for everyone, but as far as movies go there's an uncomplicated formula: we either remember a movie because it's great or we remember a movie because it absolutely sucks. The vast majority fall in the middle, films that might have been passable at the time butâ?¦

Jimmy Kilmartin is an ex-con living in Astoria in the New York City borough of Queens, trying to stay clean and raising a family with his wife Bev. But when his cousin Ronnie causes him to take a fall for driving an illegal transport of stolen cars, a police officer named 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. Jimmy remarries and attempts to renew a relationship with his child. But he is sent undercover by Detective Hart to work with Junior and infiltrate his operations. As soon as Little Junior kills an undercover federal agent with Jimmy watching, the unscrupulous district attorney and the feds further complicate his life. He must take down Junior or face the consequences.

After his time in prison, Jimmy Kilmartin (David Caruso) keeps his head down and provides for his wife and kids, until his cousin Ronnie (Michael Rapaport) ropes him into a large-scale car heist that goes bad. After several more years in the pen, a district attorney (Stanley Tucci) offers Jimmy a deal that will spring him if he agrees to go undercover and help nail murderous crime lord Little Junior Brown (Nicolas Cage). But Little Junior won't go down without a fight.

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Critics Consensus: An outstanding ensemble cast propels Kiss of Death, a noir-ish crime thriller that's slick and big on atmosphere, even if its script may only provide sporadic bursts of tension.

Trailer for Barbet Schroeder's film

Kiss of Death (1995) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.

Directed by Barbet Schroeder. With David Caruso, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Helen Hunt. A reformed convict goes undercover with the help of an angry detective to ensnare a psychotic mobster.

Kiss of Death is a 1995 crime thriller film starring David Caruso, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Helen Hunt, Ving Rhames, and Stanley Tucci, directed by Barbet Schroeder.