Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999)

Fresh and Exciting

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Kiss Toledo Goodbye" is a very imperfect movie. Essentially it is a very sloppy movie. The editing is a real chop shop job, with absolutely zero flow to the story. Characters disappear for many minutes, then suddenly reappear for no particular reason. Christopher Walken gives a rather uninspired, typical quirky performance. The combination of attempted comedy along with a lot of gun banging goes nowhere. Especially weak is the "surprise" ending that is totally unbelievable and makes what precedes it even less compelling. In summary, do not let the presence of Christopher Walken tempt you into watching this, as it is a very lame excuse for entertainment. - MERK

My mom is a semi fan of Christopher Walken and this appealed to her I guess though I am usually baffled by what she picks up when I let her choose a movie to watch. I too like Christopher Walken and also so saw on the box that Nacy Allen was in it. I love her from her Brian De Palma days and the Robocop film series. So I went with it and watched this movie. Little did i know that Michael Rapperport would turn out to be the star of the film. I can take Rapperport in small doses like, True Romance, Bamboozled and Hitch. But a whole movie surrounding him, naw can't handle that, unfortunately I was forced too. Because if I give my Mom crap about watching stupid movies like this she will in-turn gripe at me for making her watch good movies like Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, so I this is how i'm forced into watching crap like this. My mom will never learn. The film however has only one saving grace and that is the appearance of Chris Walken as the second in charge of a mob family. Nancy Allen on the other hand has so little screen time it is a wonder she was involved with the film at all. She must have owed someone a favor. Avoid this film at all cost unless you are a Chris Walken completest.

all i wanted to comment on was the fact that the creators of this film seemed to do absolutely no visiting of Toledo. wherever it was that they shot this movie looks nothing like Toledo and nothing referenced or shown in the film is in Toledo not even the skyline shown in the film. i mean couldn't they just shoot the film in Toledo for crying out loud or at least try to learn about the city before trying to represent it on film. the movie itself was horrible too but with a great cast. i just was so upset as a Toledo filmmaker myself that they would disrespect my city so much by ignoring it and using the name in its film.

There are far, far worse movies out there. For a mobster movie with less intensity than the standards, this is a lot of fun.Michael Rappaport is (as always) excellent, and this film offers one of the few opportunities we've had to see Christopher Walken in a less-than-terrifying role.Sure, the film meanders a bit, has little poignancy, and, in the end, is mostly forgettable...but it's also a bit off the beaten path and is worth a rental, especially for an evening where you just don't want to bother with another lackluster Hollywood Blockbuster.