Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Suspense
Director: John Dahl
Year: 1989
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Kill Me Again was modern film noir specialist John Dahl’s first directing gig, but you’d never know it. His ability to instill a mood, create striking compositions, pull performances from actors, and direct action was already at a very sophisticated level in his first feature.
Fay Forrester (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Val’s wife at the time) is the archetypal dumb, greedy bitch. After her boyfriend Vince Miller (Michael Madsen) robs a suitcase of cash from a courier, and it turns out to have almost a million dollars in it instead of the ten thousand or so he was expecting, Fay is upset because Vince reneges on his promise to take her to Vegas after the job. Obviously, the suitcase is full of mob money. It’s like Fay wants to get killed or something. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer is all too convincing as this bubblehead.
Fay manages to get away from Vince with the moolah, and hires private investigator Jack Andrews (Val Kilmer) to help her disappear, lying to him about the reason. Things get complicated and ugly real fast.
Val Kilmer is adequate as a white knight type willing to stick his neck out for Fay even after he finds out she’s a “two-faced bitch,” as he accurately describes her, but this isn’t really Kilmer’s film. The fun is mostly in the twists and turns of the plot.
Michael Madsen excels as Vince, a cold-blooded S.O.B. who is amused when a man he’s torturing attempts to avoid telling what he knows. Vince doesn’t find inflicting pain amusing — he’s indifferent to that. What Vince enjoys is the absurdity of a guy enduring pain for no good reason. Later on, when Vince is the butt of one of God’s practical jokes, he’s just as willing to chuckle at life’s little absurdities.
Kill Me Again isn’t perfect, though. First of all, stupid characters are not as interesting as clever ones. Fay thinks she’s smart, but she’s as dumb as a butt plug. The fact that Vince and Jack have any feelings at all for her makes us respect them that much less, and not care as much about their eventual fates. That’s a big drawback.
The other problem is that the movie ends somewhat abruptly, as if director John Dahl ran out of money and had to throw away ten pages or so of the script. I would have happily gone along with another twenty minutes of plot complications.
Still, Kill Me Again is fun, and a heckuva debut for director John Dahl, who would go on to direct excellent genre films like Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Unforgettable, Rounders, and Joy Ride.
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