the leading man is my tpye

Just so...so bad

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Film Soleil, the yang of Film Noir's yin. Credits roll. Desert. Distilled anti-city. Bright. Sun baked. Torrid. Wasteland 360 to the horizon.Winnemucca. Nevada. A daylight heist. '76 Monte Carlo. Vince (Madsen) leather clad Elvis. Eye shades. Fay (Whalley), casino trash. She's the bait. Vince is the switch. Mob skim. Briefcase stash. Two couriers. One gets stupid. One gets cute. Vince drills him. He bites the Dust. Vince grabs the loot. Fay lays Chevy rubber. Desert desperadoes. They vamoose. Gone.Two lane getaway. Briefcase opened. Woah! Fay's ecstatic. Dollar sign eyes. Money junkie. Gambling addict. Vince mad. Too much. Thirty times too much. Mob money. Gotta leave state. Gotta scram. Gotta get outta Dodge. Gotta Idaho. Hicksville. The boonies. Lay low.Fay - No way. You go. Been there done that. We split it. Viva Las Vegas. Vince mad. Cowboy boot to brake. Hooks in. Rubber smokes. Vince and Fay have a tussle. Vince persuades. Fay comes 'round. Fay gets docile. They head North.Pit stop. Rest Area. Vince gotta whiz. Doesn't trust Fay. Takes her and briefcase into the john. Vince starts watering the horse. Fay eyeballs rock door stop. Sees way out. Sees dollar signs. She grabs rock. Kisses Vince on the melon. He's still draining the main vein. Lights out. Fay grabs money. Fay grabs Chevy. Dollar Sign eyes. Looking for bright lights. Wants to hear that ding, ding, ding. Heads to Reno.Motel. Fay checks in. Tabulates total on tabloid rag. $475,000. Almost half a mill. Tabloid blurb. "Wife fakes death and steals hubby's money." Fay get's brainstorm. Flips open phone book. Private Investigators. "A". First listing Jack Andrews. Lucky dog. Jack Andrews (Kilmer) is a Reno PI about to go on the skids. He owes $10,000 to a loan shark. Payment due. He's late. A couple of meat heads are busting up his office. A warning. Jack gets feisty. Get's a broken pinkie finger for his trouble. Fay goes fishing. Dresses in white. Innocence personified. She's pure as driven slush. Walks into Jack's. Got a plan for the man. Jack eyeballs Fay. Likes what he sees. Fay goes into her act. Turns on the tears. Sob story sister. Battered beauty. Abusive beau. Not right in the head. Displays her bruises. Cries crocodile tears. She wants Jack to fake her death. Get Vince off her rear. She'll pay $10,000. Half now. Half later. Jack's got Dollar Sign eyes. Fay is addictive. Money troubles solved? No, it's an invitation to the blues. Our Femme Fatale Joanne Whalley-Kilmer has this quality of being able to look both extremely sexy and weaselly simultaneously. At times she's a bit swarthy, disheveled, and greasy. But she cleans up nicely in a low rent, low life sort of way. She can play sweet and demure when she's registering at a motel and wants the clerk to remember her. Other times she affects the look of a rat nibbling on a wedge of cheese. Her eyes slightly bulging at the moment you flip the lights on in the kitchen. She has an aura of rodent, I guess we can call it a rat girl vibe. She's jail tail. Michael Madsen is always convincing as a homicidal psychopath. He was born to play these characters. In classic noir he would have been reverently type cast, on par with Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook Jr., Dan Duryea, and Raymond Burr. His dead eyes negate any facial expressions he may generate. You are looking into the abyss of mayhem and madness. You know he's nuts.Val Kilmer as PI Jack Andrews has an Eagle Scout vibe. He comes off as competent P.I., who has had a string of bad luck. Swerving to miss a deer he loses control of his car and goes through a guardrail. He and his wife are plunged into a lake. He tries to save her. Only Jack survives and he's haunted by the tragedy. He is down but not out. The finale sets up like this. Jack is after Fay. Vince and the police are after Jack. The mob is after Vince and Fay. It's quite entertaining, looks great, and it manages to homage a few Classic Noir's in the process. John Dahl really has a handle on Film Noir/Film Soleil. Music was by William Olvis. For his first effort Dahl earns a 7-8/10.

Even to this day, it's regrettable that the film noir tradition had to die out at the end of the fifties; but all is not quite lost, as since the release of Chinatown in 1974, there has been a steady stream of 'neo-noir' thrillers being released, and while generally not as good as their ancestral counterparts; they usually make for decent films. Kill Me Again is one such thriller; that, while suffering from a number of problems, does a good job in reminding us film fans of the classics from the forties and fifties by creating a good noir atmosphere, which is fused with a typical noir plot line. The film that it takes the most influence from definitely seems to be Billy Wilder's classic "Double Indemnity", as it follows themes of a man being dragged into a plot by a woman and death for profit. The plot follows a woman who escapes her jealous boyfriend after the pair steals over eight hundred grand from some mobsters. He isn't too pleased about her taking his cash, however, and despite her efforts of hiding by hiring a private detective to fake her death; jealous boyfriend remains on her tail.The film starts off well - the plot is set up nicely, and hints at a thrilling ride to come. The middle, too, is well done and remains thrilling while taking in the familiar noir elements. It's the ending that really, really lets the film down, however. The ending is probably the most important part for any film - as it is this that is going to stay in the audience's mind after the credits role; but the filmmakers here haven't realised that. The twist is one the most clear cut cases of having a twist in the film just for the sake of having one. It makes absolutely no sense given what has gone before, and this is matched by the abrupt ending that follows straight after. And then, just so it gets a little bit worse; we get 'treated' to a sappy final conclusion. To it's credit, the cast does well; with Val Kilmer taking the starring role. I'm not a massive fan of this guy, but he usually performs well, and he looks the part here. He is joined by his then-wife, Joanne Whalley and the always excellent Michael Madsen tops off the central trio. It's always great to see Madsen in films, and the role here is an obvious prelude to his career making performance in Reservoir Dogs. Overall, this isn't an essential film - but it's good up until the ending, and I enjoyed it so it gets a thumbs up on the whole.

Joanne Whaley is a deceitful slut in this complicated neonoir thriller, and Val Kilmer is the private eye she manages to suck into her scheme to steal money from Michael Madsen who has just stolen it from the Mafia. There are multiple murders along the way. In the end everybody gets dead except for Kilmer who makes off with the entire stash. I don't know why the plot let him get away, because he's done all kinds of illegal stuff and proved himself as untrustworthy as anyone else. But the narrative has established him as just about the only sympathetic character in the movie -- his wife recently died in a drowning, for instance.The natural locations around Lake Mead are splayed out across the screen in gorgeous color. You really want to dive into the electric blue of that man-made lake. Urban settings are less well realized.The story line is involved and not very plausible. This babe, Whaley, conks Michael Madsen over the head with a rock while he's at the urinal, which is among other things very bad manners. What's she doing in the men's room anyway? What kind of a movie IS this? After Whaley and Kilmer have been together for a while, Madsen finally catches up to them, threatens and beats Kilmer, and rapes Whaley who manages to find a gun and appears to shoot Madsen multiorgasmically. But no! Madsen shows up for the climax of the film and he and Whaley fall into each other's arms and laugh. I guess he's forgotten about getting bashed in the urinal. And I guess he's still alive because Kilmer didn't bother to check and see if Whaley had REALLY shot him after being raped. Are you following this? Good, because I couldn't. Oh -- and I also must have missed the part in which Kilmer gets to take the money out of the attache case and fill the case with junk, including a can of Spam. In fact -- well, okay, I admit it. I lost track of the money per se once or twice during the film. I'm also not certain why we are left to assume that, at the end, Kilmer can be presumed to be safe from both the Mafia and the police. I'm sure there's some reason because I am a mechanical determinist.Performances. Whaley is suitably sluttish and very yummy. She looks a little and acts a lot like Natalie Wood and is about the same size. I rather liked her appearance -- that saucy ever-jiggling bosom, those big dark eyes looking outward in two slightly different directions.Whatever "charisma" means, Val Kilmer hasn't got it here. He recites his lines as if reading them from a cue card on an afternoon drama. There is no animation in his delivery or his movement. He seems bored by having to speak. And he has prissy good looks that are repugnant. But, man, did he come awake for some roles in later movies, doing for instance a splendid job in "Heat." But here he seems to be playing his instrument with a mute.Poor Michael Madsen, a nice guy in real life apparently. But if you've seen "Reservoir Dogs," you know what he's like here, slavering over the prospect of torturing bound prisoners with lighted cigarettes, automatics, a hunting knife, a baseball bat. Sometimes he switches from one application to another in the middle of a schtick.I was kind of in the mood for it and was pretty much disappointed by it, but I can see why someone in a less demanding mood might enjoy it. It doesn't really seem to deserve much applause.

John Dahl shows little of the talent he displays in his other movies. Here the writing is weak, with some bizarre plot holes and poor dialogue. The normally reliable Joanna Whalley struggles with a US accent, while Val Kilmer just appears bemused. The bandaged hand he gets at the hands of some thugs is presumably an attempt at a knowing reference to Jack Nicholson's nose in Chinatown, but only serves to remind the audience what a gulf there is between the films.Don't let this put you off other, much better John Dahl films (Red Rock West and The Last Seduction).