Never sacrifices thrills or atmosphere or style, never skips one opportunity for digression, never misses any chance to shock, doesn't sell short a single member of its incredibly stacked cast of future stars -- not to mention Walken's absolutely towering performance -- and still has time for a stinging critique of white capital's exploitation of black labor. It's weird that I don't watch this like four times a year.

a cops vs. gangsters movie with a deceptively complicated moral lens about systems of ostensible righteousness connected to systems of violent force. the contradiction of philanthropy built on exploitation; the redistribution of blood money. probably walken's finest performance (particularly his sudden transitions from charm to dead-eyed wielding of power) and ferrara's fullest stylistic expression of his brute nihilism. "build a brand new day, dream on."

90

This movie seems to exist in those precious minutes right before the sun rises at dawn. As if the night will never cease, and there is no hope, no light at the end of the tunnel. Such a nocturnal vibe that I adore.

You guys got fat while everybody on the street shhhtarved!

"nobody rides for free, motherfucker.”

Exceptional. I don't even know where to start.

Name a more badass gangsta scene than the King of New York sequence where Frank White visits the police funeral in a limo, rolls down the window next to Caruso and goes "Hey you".

There were mass walk-outs during this movie’s world premiere at the New York Film Festival. I guess those people couldn’t handle this much Cinema.

A down in the muck, inner-city examination of the depravity and corruption of a city through the seedier motivations and lifestyles of the creepy pseudo-underworld misfit characters, it is an almost gothic take on the gangster genre. Walken is reminiscent of a vampire as he walks around in a dreamlike state - the walking dead gangster who has risen one final time to take revenge on those who've wronged him. A gritty interpretation of the classic Robin Hood tale, it is not just a morally ambiguous film it is a film about moral ambiguity, in which every character defines the term antihero in their own way.

Hätte mehr von einem Biopic über Fler erwartet.

amanhã eu escrevo alguma coisa sobre

Too fantastical to be taken truly seriously but this street fairytale has a lot of interesting things to say and does so in surprisingly gritty, yet elegant style. A cast of fun character actors and future stars before they were big and a late 80s NY hip-hop soundtrack make for an entertaining but often very brutal crime flick. It’s a breezy hour and forty minutes so don’t expect “Godfather” level inner workings of the mafia type details but “King of New York” is lean, thrilling and not to be overlooked.

a failed exploitative state, and what rises in its place

Josh Lewis can go fuck himself with the claim that this is deceptively complicated morally.
It was crazy insane though, and didn't go on too long. Definitely a post lethal weapon film, with heavy classic mob influence, but none of the pretentiousness.
I cannot believe that multiple women wanted to fuck Walken though.

Ethical mobbery

so many bad hats in this movie

Blown away by this. A full throated gangster epic oozing in style and substance. Christopher Walken giving a magnetic performance as kingpin Frank White, a man back from the dead and released back into society, with the objective of washing the grime off the streets. The cast is littered with an array of stars: Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, David Caruso, Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi, and they’re all at the top of their game. As evocative of the best noirs, this is awash in a moral murkiness. Ferrara presents New York in blues and oranges, the night skyline ever present, a character of its own as its reflection is mapped onto faces through the glass of a luxury apartment. A nocturnal odyssey ending in inevitable destruction.

Christopher Walken

“I’m not your problem. I’m just a businessman.”

Terrible film, direction, acting and story all laughably poor. 

I would have given it al lower score if not for the soundtrack !