King of New York (1990)

Abel Ferrara's King Of New York shows a man drawn in by the seedy corridors of grime and filth, entranced by the opportunistic lives of people on the edge of reason and caged in a nasty fight for survival in a city that doesn't forgive or hand out second chances without a heavy cost. I'm talking about both the director, and the knockout lead character he guides through a morose, introspective journey of self destruction. Ferrara has always had a fascination with bottom feeding despair, inlaid with a silver lining of gutter accomplishments and wanton, frenzied attempts by his characters to carve a path for themselves, often when it's already too late for them. Christopher Walken plays Frank White, a once legendary, recently paroled criminal kingpin looking to set up shop again in the mean streets, acting as an urban Robin Hood, redistributing wealth as he sees fit and ruthlessly slaughtering his competition with the flair that only Walken can infuse into a performance. He gives a stinger of a performance, a career highlight of quiet, evil resolve, devilish glee and pondering moodiness, never the protagonist, never the antagonist, always a determined, violent man at odds with his surroundings and incapable of anything but crime. Whether ruthlessly intimidating a rival wise guy, whipping out a gun at two black punks on the subway or generally just generating an undercurrent of unease, Walken is a spectral force to be reckoned with and makes the film his own. Pretty soon some straight arrow cops zero in on him and his organization, including a dogged Victor Argo and a gung ho, reckless David Caruso. Frank throws everything he has at them, marshaled by his second in command Jimmy Jump (a fantastically sleazy Laurence Fishburne, early on in his career before he got all high and mighty). An immanent showdown looms, as it must in any decent crime thriller, but Ferrera ducks expectations with a finale that brings the energy inward for something less explosive and more contemplative, making the dark, sad poetry of it impact the viewer all the more. Rumour has it much of this film was improvised, and one can sense the organic flow of energy in the scenes, the pulse of events and character interactions taking on a startling realism that never feels forced or sensationalistic. Paul Hipp, Wesley Snipes, Janet Julian, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Calderon, Theresa Randle, Frank Adonis, Vanessa Angel, Roger Smith and Steve Buscemi provide colourful support. One of the essential crime films, a milestone Walken performance, and a surprisingly melancholy vibe that shouldn't be missed.

Fmovies: In many of Ferrara's best films, including The King of New York, good and evil are not simply blurred distinctions, they are inseparable. Though this characteristic is more apparent and more powerfully examined in Bad Lieutenant than 'King', there are characters on both sides of the central conflict in this film who are equally disturbing and despicable. The word anti-hero was made for the main characters in this film.

Leading in one of his better roles since Deer Hunter, is Christopher Walken. The support cast is something of an all-star list of genre films - Fishburne, Caruso, Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Buscemi... And all of the acting is excellent.

Walken plays a sociopathic organized crime kingpin who has just been released from jail and wants to improve his public image while taking over all of the profitable crime in New York. So, he starts offing the competition and donating to impoverished hospitals, etc. Some have compared Frank White to Robin Hood, but since I find it difficult to think of the English Folk hero as a psychotic with no moral compass whatsoever, I disagree.

Worth seeing for Walken and Fishburne's performances alone, King of New York has, over the years developed something of a cult following. Considering the cast and the directorial talent, this is no surprise. Ferrara makes an entertaining film which, though it doesn't offer a great deal of new material, offers some unique characterizations and avoid devolving into straight action.

Highly recommended for fans of Walken, Fishburne, Caruso and Ferrara. Recommended for crime drama and gangsta film fans. Weakly recommended for Snipes fans.

Do you like Christopher Walken movies? The good, the deep psychological studies, the creepy pseudo-underworld /misfit characters that have unfortunately typecast one of America's greatest and multi-talented contemporary actors?

Do you like Abel Ferrara movies? The down in the muck, inner-city examinations of the seedier motivations and lifestyles-the side of life many of us would like to ignore, but are intrigued by nonetheless?

Low budget and a lot of conjones are trademarks of Ferrara's films (Fear City, The Addiction, The Funeral) and this is no exception, but the term stylish is defined here..You see, you hear, you FEEL the environment-the nasty low morality hustlers of the five burroughsÂ…Â…Â…Â….Much congrats to Alex Tovoularis' production design.

King of New York may not be as famous as Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant in the world of the cinema-geek, but maybe it should be.

Joe Delia's haunting soundtrack is a perfect compliment to Bojan Bazelli's moody visuals-Walken's confrontation scene of the old-style Mafiosos is as classic as it is intense.

Man, do I love this movie.

King of New York fmovies. The King of New York should be boring, it moves slowly and deliberately for much of the film, the look of the film is quite washed out with drab backgrounds and much of the background music is quiet and orchestral.

But the movie also has some great action sequences, and some of the more visceral and impacting acts of violence committed to film. This is quite unlike 90% of action films made in the last 2 decades, and it's better than almost all of them.

Frank White is released from prison, by Christopher Walken, who is white - even for a white guy.

In fact in this movie I am convinced that Walken glows in certain scenes he is so pasty, they actually could have used him for lighting.

So back to Frank White, now a free man Frank decides to "get straight back into it" in every respect. In the initial scenes the various "Its" include his limo, the crime business - and various women including his lawyer.

Frank obviously has a way with people, he is disarmingly honest (where possible) and direct, and he is very loyal to his gang. And they reciprocate. Frank also moves in different circles, as well as the lower socioeconomic area that he resides in, and does business with, he also spends time with the cities' elite, pressing the flesh and trying to broker deals of a different nature.

There is the initial montage that goes along with reestablishing turf, various rival dealers and kingpins are dealt with, the violence in these scenes is quite immediate and realistic, no amazing stunt leaps or protracted death rolls here, you are shot and you fall down, there are no dramatic final carefully scripted words. (These scenes reminded me a lot of Beat Takeshi and his films, especially Brother, which coincidentally enough had a non-black guy running a crime gang staffed mostly by black guys.)

Frank also turns an attempted mugging into an impromptu recruitment drive. This sounds odd, but is even odder when you factor in that he was interrupted mid titty-squeeze on the subway!

The difference between Frank and say Nino Brown or Tony Montana, is that Frank actually seems determined to help the very same group of people that is selling to, one of his pet projects is personally funding a hospital in a poorer area using 16M of his own money.

When he tries to co-opt a rival gang leader into assisting he is met with scorn and derision. Here we learn another thing about Frank, if you knock back a deal, he'll get what he wants anyway, just through other more violent means.

As Frank and his crew expand and become more successful, he attracts the attention of two groups, rival gangs wary of losing turf and customers, and the cops. We already know how Frank and co deal with rival gangs, let's talk about the cops.

The cops are both a strength and a weakness in this film. In the early sections we meet them all, Roy (Victor Argo) is the time-weathered Boss, determined to nab Frank but rendered almost powerless by the system. Tommy (Wesley Snipes) and Dennis (David Caruso) are the younger hotheads that are willing to do "anything" to keep the streets clean, there is also a fourth newly-wed cop who anyone (who has seen an action movie at least) knows is only there to be killed.

The cops have a minor victory when they manage to find a real living witness to a crime committed by Frank's henchman, most notably Jimmy Jump (Larry Fishburne, more on him later). In a show of loyalty Frank plumps up the sizable bail to fre

King of New York, while not a classic, is a gritty, drug-lord gangster flick in the same vein as films like 'New Jack City' and 'American Gangster'. If you like this type of movie then King of New York is definitely worth a look. Frank White (Christopher Walken) has just been released from prison and wants to get back together with his gang, take over the New York drug trade, and become a modern robin hood. This little known film somehow flew under the radar when released in 1990 but is just as entertaining as the movies I listed above.

New York detective Dennis Gilley (David Caruso) is sick and tired of seeing drug lords like Frank run amuck in his city and is ready to cross any lineÂ…indeed to do whatever it takes, including murder, to take Frank down. Dennis' captain Roy Bishop (the late Victor Argo) wants Frank busted too, but he wants to do it by the book and tries to control his subordinates to no avail.

One prolonged climactic sequence of this movie is virtually worth the price of admission; when Dennis and his group disguise themselves and infiltrate Frank's hideout while they are partying one night. The place erupts in a frenzy of gunfire as we try to distinguish just who is who and eventually the scene spills outside and evolves into a high speed car chase and shoot out as the cops chase Frank and his number two man Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne) through the streets of New York. This protracted scene lasts about 15 minutes and is dynamiteÂ….you may find yourself rewinding to watch it again!

There is no conventional movie ending here, in fact it is a rather bleak and downcast wrap-up, but then this is no typical Hollywood film. The acting however is top notch, with Walken delivering as usual, Caruso bringing a surprising amount of intensity to his role, and the then-unknown Wesley Snipes effective as Caruso's partner. The standout to me though is Fishburne, who gives an over the top performance as the psychotic, volatile Jimmy Jump. It's worth watching for this performance alone. That isÂ….if you like an action packed, violent gangster filmÂ…and if not, you're probably not still reading this anyway, so enjoy.

King of New York (1990) was Abel Ferrara's return to the his favorite style of film making (the urban street drama). Over the past fifteen years, this movie has achieved a cult status that one would have never imagined. During it's initial release on video, this film was a word-of-mouth hit. I remembered watching this in high school. Although the movie was never a major box office hit, film found an audience when it was released on tape. But the movie's popularity grew even more when rappers made numerous of references to it in music and song.

Christopher Walken stars as a crime lord who has done a stint in prison. Upon his release he begins to rebuild his fledging empire through violence and strong arming. Whilst he rotted in prison, his rivals became strong as they gobbled up his business. With time on his side, Frank launches a plan that'll make him KING OF NEW YORK. Can Frank do it by himself? How will the local authorities re-act to his new found activities? Will his soldiers remain loyal? What will his rivals do? To find out you'll just have to watch it!!

I found this movie to be very good. Abel Ferrara has found his niche audience and he should cater to it. He has a style that a director like Martin Scorese once had.

Highly recommended.