Abel Ferrara's King of New York is, to put it lightly, totally awesome. Starring a very zombie-lookin' Christopher Walken as recently sprung drug kingpin Frank White, the film is a cavalcade of gun-toting B-Boys, coke snorting, and titties*. The plot centers around Frank's attempts to reassert his dominance over the drug trade after his long absence, as well as fund a children's hospital in the Bronx.
But all that is secondary, in my opinion, to simply watching Walken inhabit the screen: bulging his eyeballs, doing a funky/freaky little dance, licking his teeth, demanding hot make-outs while riding the 7 train, and just generally being completely crazytown.
Adding to the fun are awesome appearances by Laurence Fishburne (billed here as "Larry," how casual), Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi (he's the marginally bad ass white guy that tests the quality of the drugs with some nerday-ass science lab shit, obvs), and David Caruso--who gives an amazingly unhinged performance as a hot-headed, mildly racist Brooklyn cop who's out to get Frank, LAW OR NO LAW. Guess how that turns out...ok, he gets shot in the face. Um, spoiler alert. Too bad, because that no doubt ruined his awe-inspiring haircut.
Oh, but to return to Larry Fishburne--his character "Jimmy Jump" is the best. Simply wonderful. He has a grill, a gold rope chain, leather jacket, crazy huge sunglasses--basically he looks like Schoolly D. Ferrara helpfully plays Schoolly D tracks throughout the movie, multiplying the awesome.
In short, King of New York is similar in grim, gritty appeal to Ferrara's totally bonkers masterpiece Bad Lieutenant, but it's a lot funnier.
Rating: Highly Recommended/Bitchin'
*Normally I would never employ a word so crude as this, but if you've seen the movie, you'll realize that I really had no choice whatsoever.
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