Chain of Fools (2000)

Directors:

Pontus Löwenhielm
Patrick von Krusenstjerna

Writer (WGA):

Bix Skahill (written by)

Release Date:

22 September 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

A little larceny. A lot of laughs!

Plot:

Salma Hayek plays an avid detective assigned to the heist of a batch of precious coins that end up in the hands of a suicidal barber.

Plot Keywords:

Coin | Botched Crime | Dog | Flashback Sequence | Suicide

Cast

Steve Zahn	...	Kresk
Salma Hayek	...	Kolko
Jeff Goldblum	...	Avnet
Elijah Wood	...	Mikey
David Cross	...	Andy
Tom Wilkinson	...	Bollingsworth
Orlando Jones	...	Miss Cocoa
Kevin Corrigan	...	Paulie
David Hyde Pierce	...	Mr. Kerner
Lara Flynn Boyle	...	Karen
John Cassini	...	Henchman
Michael Rapaport	...	Hitman
Myndy Crist	...	Jeannie
Craig Ferguson	...	Melander Stevens
Devin Douglas Drewitz	...	Scottie (as Devin Drewitz)

Also Known As:

Shiny New Enemies (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

Sweden:96 min | USA:98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating) | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Germany:12 | Sweden:11 | USA:R (No. 37280) | Canada:A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Bel Air Entertainment

Quotes:

Mikey: Excuse me, is this chair being used?
Snotty Man: Does it look like it's being used?
Mikey: "Does it look like it's being used?" That's a good one.
[Mikey picks up the chair and smashes the man with it]
Mikey: Now it's being used.

Soundtrack:

Orleans Gumbo

Nice comedy/crime with a lot of characters

Recap: Kresk, struggling barber, recently divorced by his wife stumbles upon a secret when a gangster comes into his barbershop. This gangster, Avnet, was involved in a high profile theft last night involving three ancient Chinese coins. He thinks Kresk must die, fortunately fro Kresk Avnet stumbles and get Kresk's scissor in his neck. Now Kresk has a body to take care of. Unfortunately for Kresk, Kresk is not the brightest boy in town. And worse, neither is his friend Andy, full time scout, who he enlists for help. But as time goes, and things get worse, more and more people get involved, but Kresk is determined that those coins will change his life. For the better, he hopes.

Comments: An unusual comedy/crime movie handling a lot of different subplots that runs at the sides of each others with a lot of intersections. What makes this unusual and imaginative is that what happens in a subplot we are not currently following has an impact how the story goes at the next intersection. At the same time we get the full coverage in time with a frequent use of flashbacks and jumps in the timeline. Still, it was never any problem to follow.

The movie has a really big cast, and a lot of the names on the list are known. Goldblum delivers a solid performance as usual, Zahn is a great choice for Kresk. The best impression however I think I got from Elijah Wood who portrays a teen hit-man with finesse. I think it is the best performance from him I have ever seen. The director team Traktor has done a great work in their movie debut and I hope I will see more work from them like this one.

7/10