KISS OF DEATH (1995)

KISS OF DEATH (R) Supremely satisfying-a remake of the 1947 film noir that expands the possibilities of dread, cleverness, and desperation the earlier picture merely toyed with. David Caruso has an implosive intensity as Jimmy Kilmartin, an ex-crook coerced back into the underworld. As set forth by Richard Price's intricate scenario, fate keeps undercutting Jimmy like a trip wire. Yet everything that happens has a piercing logic. The highlight is the section in which Jimmy goes undercover to get the goods on Little Junior, a hotheaded freak of a mobster (played, in a mesmerizing performance, by Nicolas Cage). A ( 271, April 21) -OG