King Of New York (1990)

There are so many different ways that you can access movies these days that I am barely touching the surface and many of them I just do not have any longer. One app that I decided to try recently was Tubi and one film that popped out to me was the 1990 film King Of New York. The crime, thriller was directed by Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer) and stars Christopher Walken (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) as recently paroled gangster Frank White who has been out of action for so long that things have changed in New York. With the help of his loyal confidant Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne), they'll try to take over all of New York as he strives to be King of New York. The film also stars Wesley Snipes (Blade) as Thomas Flanigan,  David Caruso (Proof Of Life) as Dennis Gilley, Victor Argo (The Last Temptation Of Christ) as Roy Bishop, Roger Guenveur Smith (Deep Cover) as Tanner, Janet Julian (Humongous) as Jennifer, Giancarlo Esposito (The Jungle Book) as Lance, Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire) as Test Tube, Theresa Randle (Bad Boys For Life) as Raye, Joey Chin (China Girl) as Larry Wong, Paul Calderon (Pulp Fiction) as Joey Dalesio, and  Robert LaSardo (Bubble Boy) as Italian Guard.

I was a little worried about how I would feel about Christopher Walken playing a gangster, but after watching this I remembered why I love the guy. Think of this as the pre-cursor to Suicide Kings which I also loved with Walken. The story is a very simple one that is all about a guy trying to take over the underworld so that he is the king of New York so there's nothing extra-ordinary about it. The one thing the film's writing does is that it appeals to the crime world and portrays police officers as the villains of the film. I mean, I don't think it's just me, but who could love David Caruso as a cop? I mean he is an asshole to criminals and the people close to him in the film so automatically you are rooting against him and his mindless partner played by Wesley Snipes. If you like at this film, it's a story of two families, one being Walken's crew and the other being the police officers. Walken runs his crew while Fishburne and co are loyal soldiers. Victor Argo runs his crew and they usually don't do anything without his permission so Snipes and Caruso are soldiers as well. Only in this film, you are rooting for Team Walken and I get why they did it, but a lot of people have a problem with that angle. There's plenty of action and violence to go with this film's use of women as objects so if you love it then you'll like this one. I really thought Laurence Fishburne was great in this film, much better than he was in Deep Cover. With all of that being said, I am going to give this film an B for a final grade.