King of New York (1990)

“From now on, nothing goes down unless I’m involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it’s my turn.” – Frank White

Number of Times Seen – 1 (14 Dec 2017)

Brief Synopsis – A Drug lord just released from prison tries to take over all criminal activity in New York by force.

My Take on it – This is a film that I never saw before but was a bit intrigued to see it due to it featuring Christopher Walken in the lead role.

The problem with this film is that the plot is a complete and senseless mess.

Nothing much happens besides criminals killing criminals, criminals killing cops and cop killing criminals.

This is filled with so much senseless and extreme violence that amounts to being completely pointless the whole way through in order to just try and raise the body count as high as possible.

The cast is the one highlight of this film because it features four unknown actors that were propelled to stardom in the years following this film.

David Caruso, Laurence Fishburne, Steve Buscemi and Wesley Snipes all have nice onscreen presence here despite not having much to do.

Walken doesn’t have much to do here either besides look psychotic, crazy and ambitious in a calm way (is that considered acting by him?)

Bottom Line – Complete waste of time. This film’s plot is a real mess.  The cast is superb but none of them have much to do besides Walken who just needs to look psychotic and crazy. (which doesn’t really quire him to act). The film is filled with extreme and senseless violence that just tries to raise the body count without telling a useful story. Skip it!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – During the film’s premiere at the New York Film Festival, many members of the audience including Ferrara’s wife walked out of the theater. At the question-and-answer session that Ferrara held after the screening, the first question asked was, “This film is an abomination. Why aren’t you giving the proceeds to some drug rehab program?” At a second showing of the film the next day, Laurence Fishburne and ‘Nicholas St. John (I)’ were booed off the stage. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy

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