Thomas Kresk is a loser—he isn't good at his job, he's been tossed out of his home, and his wife just dumped him for the marriage counselor. On top of all that, his longtime friend and mentor Gordon Freeman died tragically. Now he's depressed, and contemplating suicide. And yes, things get worse: a criminal named Avnet (Jeff Goldblum) has stolen three priceless coins, and decided to blackmail Bollingsworth (Tom Wilkinson), his billionaire partner in crime. After Kresk overhears this, he almost gets shot—and Avnet ends up impaled on a pair of barbers' scissors.
Now Kresk is in a considerably nastier situation, so he steals the gun and the coins. But things take a sharp turn when he hires a hit man named Mikey (Elijah Wood), and discovers that the hit man is only seventeen and emotionally traumatized by his parents' suicide. And that Kresk is falling for the cop/Playboy model Sgt. Meredith Kolko (Salma Hayek), and that his nephew Scottie (Devin Drewitz) has now swallowed the coins. Now Kresk is in over his head, and has to deal with the strange and sometimes dangerous people around him.
Chain of Fools premiered in Sweden on March 3, 2001.[2] The film was scheduled for a US release by Warner Bros. Pictures in the fall of 2000, but this never happened. It was then shelved for five years before finally being released on DVD on February 15, 2005.[3]
Critical reception
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Variety said the film is "uneven but shows definite signs of promise."[2]
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