The premise of Suicide Kings - four young and privileged men kidnap a retired mob boss played by Christopher Walken - is appealing. So much so that it makes me wish it made for a better film.

Suicide Kings tries to be a psychological thriller focusing on mental cat-and-mouse games between the mobsters and his kidnappers, and the actors are good enough to pull it off - in fact, they're good enough to make you think that there's any psychological depth to the film, when really there's none. Walken and the talented young cast - Denis Leary, Jay Mohr, Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints),Jeremy Sisto (Law & Order),Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) and Henry Thomas (E.T's Elliot all grown up) - all deliver their lines with so much passion and conviction that you almost don't notice how messy and shallow the script really is.

This fine group of actors - and Walken's wildly charismatic performance most of all, from an actor so powerful he can dominate the film while being tied to a chair for all but a few minutes of it - is more than enough to make the film entertaining, even very enjoyable. The weak script, which deteriorates into cheap twists and conspiracies towards the end - makes it entirely forgettable. A quick comparison to Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave is a testament to how much more comfortable the British are with theatrical minimalism. With a great director and a great script, Suicide Kings could have been something wonderful. As it is, it's good enough for one pleasurable watch, but leaves no mark and no impression.

Directed by Peter O'Fallen, Suicide Kings follows a group of five men who kidnap at former mob boss Carlo Bartolucci and hold him hostage, demanding for $2 million dollars to save one of the men's sister who's been kidnapped. Complexities and dilemmas ensue between these five men when they struggle to execute their plans accurately. The film reaches the cast of Jay Mohr, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Henry Thomas, Jeremy Sisto, and Johnny Galecki.

Upon watching this film, I was expecting to see a neo-noir thriller with suspense and originality. Unfortunately, what we get is an unoriginal and unnecessarily convoluted crime-thriller tries to be a Quentin Tarantino wannabe. The story shamelessly borrows elements from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and it fails to execute them with inspiration. When the watch this, you feel like you are watching a remake of Reservoir Dogs with a touch of Pulp Fiction. The five main characters are involved with a kidnapping that goes wrong, then there is the slight non-linear storyline similar to what Tarantino's films are known for. The characters are rather underdeveloped, even Christopher Walken who is the center-stage seems somewhat under constructed. The only candy this film has to offer is some scenes of suspense and tension between the characters. The cast does amazing jobs as their characters, especially Christopher Walken. Other than that, not much else.

All in all, Suicide Kings was a bit of a disappointment. Even with its brilliant cast and suspenseful investment, this film fails to come up with anything original.

Carlo Bartolucci / Charlie Barret (Christopher Walken) is a former mob boss. He finds Avery Chasten (Henry Thomas) and Max Minot (Sean Patrick Flanery) sitting at his regular restaurant table. He starts talking to the young men and Brett Campbell (Jay Mohr) joins them. He wants to have a night out with the boys. Instead, they kidnap him after a struggle. Medical student T.K. (Jeremy Sisto) is there to treat him. Avery's sister Elise had been kidnapped for a $2 million ransom. They want his connections and money to save her. The kidnappers have cut off her finger and the boys cut off his finger in kind. Lono Veccio (Denis Leary) is Bartolucci's bodyguard. The guys have taken Bartolucci to their unsuspecting friend Ira Reder (Johnny Galecki)'s family home.

This tries very hard to be like Tarantino. A finger is cut off pretty quickly. It's got Walken with a motley crew of young actors. The potential is there but it's all wrong. The guys take him from someplace public with lots of witnesses and bring him to Ira's home without telling him. Why? What if Ira shows up? What if Ira's parents show up? What if anybody shows up? It's a bad plan. The incompetence is really annoying. Then there is the reveal. It doesn't really make sense that they kidnap Bartolucci. None of these friends are appealing characters. They bother me a lot with their argumentative idiocy. That's its most glaring failing compared to Tarantino's electric dialog. The problem with this movie is how obvious it fails to hit its target and the failure is really bothersome.