Suicide Kings

So potent is Christopher Walken's understated menace that even tied to a chair, as he is through most of this film (and that's about the only way you could get me to watch it), he blows away the ensemble of young actors who portray his captors. Or maybe you just wish he would blow them away. Jay Mohr (Jerry Maguire), Henry Thomas (now light years from E.T.) and Sean Patrick Flannery star as prep school buddies who have hatched this ill-fated scheme to shanghai a former crime boss to obtain the $2 million ransom to pay kidnappers who have snatched Thomas's sister. Walken, who seems more bemused than angry ("You didn't think this thing through too good, did you?" he asks) gradually turns the tables on the gang that couldn't think straight. Denis Leary does his patented profane, hyper-verbal Denis Leary bit as Walken's enforcer. The self-consciously deadpan dialogue is third-rate Tarantino, and the final reel revelations try desperately to ace The Usual Suspects, but merely strain audience credulity. Not recommended. (K. Lee Benson)