Every few months, another film is unceremoniously dumped on video shelves that blatantly rips off the first two films directed by Quentin Tarantino. Though it's easy to see why filmmakers would want to follow in the footsteps of such a successful director, no Tarantino knockoff has ever been a theatrical hit. Even good movies influenced at least in part by Tarantino—Trainspotting, Out Of Sight—have been commercial disappointments. Yet despite the tremendous odds against a knockoff finding an audience of its own, films like Judas Kiss just keep getting made. Set in a New Orleans overrun with colorful characters who seem to have learned English by watching Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme, Judas Kiss concerns four criminals (including Ally McBeal hunk Gil Bellows and Blockbuster Entertainment Award nominee Carla Gugino) whose plot to kidnap a computer genius goes predictably awry. Although stylish and competently written, nothing in Judas Kiss hasn't been done far better elsewhere. True, it's quite possibly the only film ever made with a criminals-enjoying-recreational-sex-while-locked-in-a-back-room montage sequence set to the Cure's "Just Like Heaven," but such small consolations can't overcome a dearth of originality. Perhaps the most puzzling thing about Judas Kiss is Emma Thompson's presence, although it's possible that Thompson, like Jonathan Silverman and other fine actors, just couldn't pass up the opportunity to act alongside The Single Guy co-star Joey Slotnick.