Browse all reviews by letter     A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 - 9

Italy/USA/UK 1990
Directed by
Abel Ferrara
103 minutes
Rated MA

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2 stars

King Of New York

King Of New York is essentially an exploitation movie trading in sex and violence but takes itself too seriously to share in the tongue-in-cheek qualities of grindhouse fare. And as an exercise in style, which is its principal calling card, as that style is of the late 1980s, it is laughably dated with its blinged-up designer punks, soft-core sex, nose-powder chic and cartoon violence. It does have one merit and that is Christopher Walken’s über-cool drug boss but as good as Walken is one can’t help but feel embarrassed for him and that goes for other cast members such as Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito and Steve Buscemi all of whom have seen much better days.

King Of New York is Scarface (1983) for MTV generation (Ferrara directed a number of episodes of the classic 80s schlock TV series, Miami Vice) with Walken playing Frank White, a New York career crim who gets out of the slammer having decided to become a crime kingpin. This is not unusual for the territory but what is, is that realizing that he has wasted his life, he wants to do good in his community. The project he picks is a South Bronx hospital that need $16 million to stay operational. So Frank, validated in his own mind by the righteousness of his mission, starts wiping out everyone who stands in his cash-generating way.

None of this has even a remote grounding in reality with Ferrara more concerned with topping the vicarious thrills of genre precedents than creating anything dramatically credible. This applies particularly to the sub-plot involving the cops who are inexplicably prepared to die to stop him, even when Frank points out to their boss (Victor Argo) that he (Frank) is only wasting scum bags. Ferrara wants us to see this as irony but the problem is not so much that Frank White is not Michael Corleone but that Ferrara is no Coppola. As the saying goes, when you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

 

 

back

Want something different?

random vintage best worst