Kiss of Death (1995)

Kiss of Death (1995) is the first feature film (and the beginning of the skinematic kiss of death) for NYPD Blue’s David Caruso. The former cop plays perp Jimmy Kilmartin, a recovering drunk and former felon struggling to stay sober with his sousey wife Helen Hunt. One day his cousin Ronnie (Michael Rapaport) comes to the door begging for Jim’s help in transporting stolen cars, claiming that the mob is out to kill him for it. Jimmy likes to steal cars, see, so he helps his cousin do one last jobber with low-life psychopath Little Junior Brown (Nicolas Cage). But the coppers catch wise and one is even offed during the run. Jimmy does the crime and the time but refuses to rat out his thieving friends. Meanwhile, randy cousin Ronnie double-crosses him by coveting his lonely alcoholic hottie of a wife. When Jimmy is finally as free as a bird, the 5-0 won’t let it all go. They want to use him as a stooge to get Little Junior. Torn between becoming a goody-two-shoes stool pigeon and his passion to pump lead into Ronnie, Jimmy must decide between surrender and giving the final lock, stock, and barreled smooch to his own conniving kin.