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September 23, 2006  Thanks to the premiere of the new CBS series Smith (Tuesdays at 10 p.m.), I've renewed my obsession with a string of pulp movies, none of them hits, that Ray Liotta made in the 90s. Liotta, with his pockmarked face and trademark steely glare, was something of an unlikely star thanks to Goodfellas. He never really caught on as a leading man, but that wasn't for lack of trying. At the very least, his choices in roles were about 100 times more interesting than those of other budding stars of the era, and I'd like to think that I was blazing new territory by creating the Cult of Liotta. When he's not cast as an outright villain, Liotta is almost always an unbalanced man with a terrible secret in his past, or a career criminal struggling with inner demons. He's one of the only actors with what seems to be enough natural intensity to pull off these roles. And when he smiles, it generally looks like he's about to kill you. The string of movies in question began with Article 99 and Unlawful Entry in 1992, then continued with an amazing run: No Escape, Turbulence, Cop Land, Unforgettable, and Phoenix. The string arguably was capped with an out-of-control Liotta performance as crazed Detective Henry Oak in Narc, in 2002. Of these, I'm particularly obsessed with Turbulence, in which Liotta chews scenery as "Lonely Hearts Killer" Ryan Weaver, and the Dahl Brothers' underrated sci-fi tinged thriller Unforgettable, in which he plays a doctor with a terrible past who is falsely accused of murdering his wife, then uses experimental treatments to try to revive her memories. In Cop Land, he plays downtrodden police chief Freddy Heflin's only friend, burnt-out cop Gary "Figgsy" Figgis, who sets an insurance fire at his own house and accidentally kills his girlfriend. His role is mostly memorable for the slow-motion shoot-out at the end, where Liotta appears out of nowhere, guns blazing, with a cigarette hanging from his lips. I didn't think Smith really showcased Ray's talents very well, but it had a few quality Liotta moments, including some funny Ray-with-kids hijinks that were not particularly believable and a scene where he screams frighteningly at one of his partners, which was indeed more believable. In the show, Liotta plays a career criminal who runs major heists, but maintains a quiet suburban life with wife Virginia Madsen. It's a promising premise that owes more than a little to Michael Mann's Thief, one of the ten best films of all time, but the first episode was a little too scattered to really judge. Another problem with the concept is that Liotta can't get caught, or the show will sort of be over. |