Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I don't know what movie a few of those reviewers were watching because this is Val Kilmer at his best. Columbus Day is a fantastic film all of the way through. I absolutely loved it. To start, the acting is superb. Even more importantly is the exquisite way in which this film was shot. The attention to detail, high level camera work and manner in which the story unfolded and was depicted was beyond impressive. I was also fully engrossed in the story and the romantic plot was organic and engrossing. I think that this film is totally underrated and deserves high level praise because it was a seriously captivating and entertaining watch for me.

Val Kilmer's own production company was somehow responsible for this film. It is supposedly some kind of drama synthesized with an action film but misses the mark due to the dramatic elements being the most over-used clichés of the 'redeemed con turned family man' genre. Important to note, here in Australia, (where they must take us for idiots), this film has on its cover a picture of Val standing tall against a blood red background and holding two .45 pistols and beside the phrase, 'A Game of Life and Death'. Which bit was of the film was that? Was it the part where the man feeds the ducks? Or was it the fact that the majority of the 'action', (if you can call someone making 28 phone calls 'action') occurring beside a lake which the characters could perilously fall into and perhaps drown? Maybe they might catch something from all the pollution in the water? That might be fatal and constitute elements of 'life and death'. Who knows? The 'action' in this film substantiates to about 15% of the total, if that. I don't mind it being a drama, but it's downright dishonest to palm this off as a gritty edge of your seat 'action' film and then have the majority of the story center around a day in the park, which is what it really is. There were no .45 caliber guns of the type shown on the cover used at any point in this film by the character Val portrays. Perhaps they substituted this imaginatively suggestive cover because they realized pretty quickly after putting it in front of a test audience that if they used a shot of the man feeding the ducks on the cover with Val together with his eight year old on-again-off-again pal smiling in the distance whilst peddle boating across the lake in the sunshine then people might get a whiff and not rent it. Here in Australia that fake cover fully constitutes false advertising as per the 1972 Trade Practises Act section 40 and on Monday I'm going to personally call the Office of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and make a complaint about that as it breaches the law. At one point in the film the blood smudge on Val's cheek switches sides (and during a close up, if you can believe they would miss such a glaring error). (Don't think the blood smear indicates any type of 'action' having occurred either.) They even spelled 'gangster' on the cover with two 'n's! To me this indicates that the production crew and or anyone else involved with this film weren't looking too closely at the final edit. Maybe they couldn't wait to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure no one was looking too closely, and after watching it I will advise anyone, neither should you.

Definitely a movie worth watching. Val Kilmer is such a complex and an accomplished actor that this movie fits him like a glove. The story itself is an action - crime thriller (where Kilmer is an semi-high profile thief that plans on retiring "en fanfare") interweaved with the drama of his personal life, which he plans on rebuilding by breaking up with his foreign girl-friend and start over with his ex-wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter he knows so little. These two plans come together in Echo Park where his last job comes down. The only thing I don't understand is that Antoine kid....his character was a little confusing and I didn't quite get what his role in the movie was. Other than that, acting is great, script is OK i guess, keen on details, overall the movie is very enjoyable...at least for me it was.....

Finally a crime drama that doesn't end on the most depressing of notes. The kid and Kilmer are just brilliant when their dialogue bounces between each other in the most unexpected ways while growing to become friends. Wilmer Valderrama puts in a performance that shows he's probably the edgiest actor to come out of 'That 70's Show' set. I didn't clue into the fact it was him until the final 30 minutes of the film. Marg must have loved playing a new role like this- she broke my heart with this performance and I cared so much about what happens to her and her daughter in relation to Kilmer's outcome. So realistically portrayed- bravo Marg. Kilmer is great as always and continues his reputation of delivering a fine tuned performance.A truly great film that deserved a higher budget, but Kilmer and co have created an amazingly, smooth piece of cinema. Everyone involved should be very proud.The acting, editing, cinematography, music: all fantastic- and there's so many lines of dialogue that catch you off guard either comedically or more often dramatically that I can't see the type who wouldn't get sucked into this movie's story.AND THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!Even the friggin extras in the background of the park Kilmer hides out in have their own small story lines going on (ie one couple meets for the first time in the background of one shot and later near the end of the film you see them again in the background arguing...everything comes full circle in this movie- plot, characters, extras(lol)...fantastic.I can't wait to put this one in my DVD collection. Thanks for making up for Conspiracy in a grand fashion. Great screenplay. Great acting. Great film.sin-surely, RF