Rating: R
Genre:
Crime
Theatrical Release: 09/28/1990(USA)
Release Date: 04/20/2004
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2/DD5.1
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Flags: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity, Substance Abuse, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Live/Artisan
The gritty underbelly of New York's complex, ethnically divided criminal world is exposed in this dark drama from director
Abel Ferrara.
Christopher Walken stars as Frank White, a drug lord who's just been released from a long stint in prison. Aware that feeding off of society's depravity has made him a wealthy man, Frank has become determined to give something back to the city, and he hatches a scheme to build a multimillion-dollar public hospital in one of Brooklyn's worst ghetto neighborhoods. Needing the assistance of his fellow criminals to pull it off, Frank and his adjutant Jimmy Jump (
Laurence Fishburne) encounter a wall of resistance from every faction, including drug-trade partner Lance Wong (
Joey Chin) and temperamental cop Dennis Gilley (
David Caruso). Frank's do-gooder efforts ultimately result in a Mob war and in a bloody showdown between the city's various ethnic criminal actions.
Ferrara followed
King of New York with a similarly themed film that many critics considered his masterpiece,
Bad Lieutenant (1992).
~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
;)
