KILL THE IRISHMAN (Jonathan Hensleigh). 105 minutes. Opens Friday (March 18). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: N
A movie that includes Val Kilmer, Vincent D’Onofrio and Christopher Walken shouldn’t be dull, but somehow Kill The Irishman manages it.
Jonathan Hensleigh’s tepid crime drama tells the true story of Danny Greene, a burly dockworker who slapped his way through the Cleveland underworld in the 70s. Played by Ray Stevenson, the glowering star of Punisher: War Zone, Greene is presented as the Irish equivalent of Ray Liotta’s Italian stooge in GoodFellas – except that Greene actually manages to amass a small amount of power, which puts him on the hit list of every rival organization in town. So people keep trying to blow him up and he keeps surviving.
Hensleigh does nothing to bring his utterly clichéd tale to life, either visually or emotionally. Greene’s a blustering jerk, his associates are one-dimensional gangsters and goons, and Kilmer, D’Onofrio and Walken don’t get nearly enough screen time.
Everything this movie does, season two of The Wire did so much better.
