“Cold-Hearted Killer”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

The Iceman is based on a true story about a man named Richard Kuklinski who worked for many years as a hit man for organized crime on the East Coast.

The Iceman

The movie begins in 1964 in New Jersey and we meet Richie, played by Michael Shannon, as he finally gets a girl named Deborah, played by Winona Ryder, to go out with him.

She works across the street from where he works, but right off the bat he is secretive about his personal life. When Deborah asks Richie what he does for a living, Richie tells her, “I dub cartoons.”

Actually, however, Richie makes duplicate copies of pornographic films for his mobster boss, Roy, played by Ray Liotta.

When Deborah asks about Richie’s family, he says that he has a brother who is around somewhere, but Richie doesn’t talk to him, and later we will find out why in a scene that foretells Richie’s own future.

Deborah thinks that Richie is funny, is glad that he asked her out, and tells him that she had a really good time.

Well, a year later, Richie and Deborah are married, they have a baby girl, Deborah likes the way that Richie takes care of her, but she wants them to move into a bigger apartment.

At the same time, Roy tells Richie that he is closing the pornography lab, but he gives Richie a chance to make money by working for him as a hired killer, and Richie takes it, after proving to Roy that he can do the job.

Then we skip ahead 10 years, and we see more of Richie’s work, as well as more of the men who work for Roy and how he makes sure that jobs will get done.

Richie and Deborah have two daughters now, and Richie is devoted to his family, but he tells everybody that he makes money in currency exchange.

Meanwhile, another of Roy’s workers, Josh, played by David Schwimmer, messes up, and Richie is given a job that Roy also hired another hit man to take care of at the same time.

The other hit man is Mr. Freezy, played by Chris Evans, and by a series of circumstances Richie and Mr. Freezy start working together.

The Iceman is about such a cold-hearted killer that he was called “The Iceman.”

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”