SnoopyStyle Jimmy Kilmartin (David Caruso) is trying to stay clean in Queens. He and his wife Bev (Helen Hunt) have a baby. His cousin Ronnie Gannon (Michael Rapaport) pulls him back into working for Little Junior Brown (Nicolas Cage). Jimmy is arrested. He doesn't rat out Little Junior and in exchange, Bev is taken care of. Bev is forced to work for Ronnie as he cheats her out of the money. Big Junior Brown (Philip Baker Hall) is Junior's father and they own the strip club Baby Cakes. Ronnie gets the recovering alcoholic Bev drunk and she wakes up in his bed the next morning. In shock, she drives off and dies in a car accident. During the funeral, Bev's sister Rosie (Kathryn Erbe) tells Jimmy the truth. To get Ronnie, Jimmy rats out the crew except Ronnie. Believing Ronnie is the actual rat, Little Junior has him killed. Year later with parole coming up, police detective Frank Zioli (Stanley Tucci) threatens to out Jimmy to Little Junior. Jimmy is forced to be an informant on Little Junior. With Big Junior dead, Little Junior is the new boss and the police is actually targeting his business partner Omar (Ving Rhames). Meanwhile, Jimmy has remarried to Rosie and trying to carve out a normal life.Nicolas Cage steals this movie for both good and bad. His character is unforgettable. However, it's so big that the movie loses the thread of an intense noir thriller. David Caruso is fine and so is almost everybody else. Michael Rapaport continues his jittery sleazy bad-influence character. The story is a little long trying to do too much. For example, it would cost nothing to keep Bev around for the whole movie. With a couple of tweaks, Bev and Rosie's characters could have been combined. With some simplification and compression, this would a much tighter thriller.

RanchoTuVu This is an original take on the 1947 classic. What is has in common with that film is the central character played by David Caruso, who, when I first viewed the film, thought was ridiculous, but on second viewing have been able to appreciate the performance and the film much more. Like most modern crime-action films, it has a dynamite start with a massive heist of new cars that ends in a bloody shootout with the cops, but maintains the pace with acutely drawn underworld characterizations, especially Nicholas Cage as crime boss/killer "Junior Brown", a role that has Cage playing a muscle bound sadistic asthmatic running a topless bar. Equally impressive is Michael Rappaport's part as small time opportunistic chop shop operator Ronnie Gannon, a dangerous combination of con-game artist and violent felon. The film's biggest problem is the turf battle between the various cops which in one bizarre scene has them all gathered at a night-time meeting in a hard to believe showdown. But Caruso delivers, Cage is in a one of a kind role, and the film reeks with grit as it careens through its weird plot from heist to prison, to revenge.

lastliberal Everyone is always dissing David Caruso. I think he is alright and he really does a good job in this film. He just wants his life back and wants to take care of his family.He went to jail and lost his wife (Helen Hunt). He made a deal with the D.A. (Stanley Tucci) and got revenge on the man responsible (Michael Rapaport). But the D.A. is not satisfied. he wants Little Junior (Nicolas Cage). Cage plays one bad mother who kills a federal agent (Ving Rhames) in front of Caruso. That's not enough as the feds get put on the ropes by the mob lawyer (Anthony Heald) and the D.A. makes a deal and drops the case. With the help of a cop (Samuel L. Jackson), he closes the deal and goes off with his new wife (Kathryn Erbe).That's the story in a nutshell, but it doesn't do justice to what happens. I have seldom seen a neonoir drama with such a list of stars, not to mention eye-candy like Bernadette Penotti.Worth a watch on Sunday afternoon.

Jessica Rabbit I loved this movie. It was exciting. It had Nicholas Cage in it. The mob was in it. Car chopping, Thugs killing each other. That red haired guy from CSI Miami - Nicholas Cage owned a strip club and liked to beat people up- I loved it.Thanks. Samuel Jackson was in it. What else..... Hell, I wish I could of been in it. I could of at least played a stripper. Nicholas Cage was buffed out. He was a bad ass. I loved it. He is so hot. I liked when they beat that guy up in the garage because the guy was supposed to give the girl a ride home but did'nt . She woke up and tried to steal the guy's car but got killed trying to escape. So, They went to the guy's garage and took him out.That's what I'm talking about.... Yeah.