King Of New York

(Ferrara, 1990)

Christopher Walken is Frank White, a notorious drug kingpin recently released from prison who, without breaking stride, fully intends to make up for lost time. As premises go it’s far from original, but with Walken on sinister, serpentine form and a supporting cast of loud, nasty and unscrupulous bruisers from both sides of the law, King Of New York has enough in the way of raw ingredients to produce a darkly delicious experience overall.

The irrepressible White wastes no time in sending a message to anyone who might stand in his way, and those who refuse to deal on his terms soon find the alternative less than conducive to their long-term health. Here is a gangster who is supremely confident in his methods and his manpower, and for much of the film it seems like he may just be untouchable.

As his enemies try desperately to bring him down, White merely goes from strength to strength. He uses his ill-gotten fortune to nurture a facade of respectability, infuriating the authorities and driving them to extreme lengths. Frank would exploit the law to see himself elected mayor, while his foes would forsake it to see him dead.

The film is as stylish as you might expect from Abel Ferrara, but all the beautifully dingy scenes of rain-swept streets and sweeping shots over the neon-lit New York skyline can’t cover up the fact we’re expected to take what we’re seeing at face value, without questioning the often baffling premise and storyline turns.

If you simply allow yourself to be caught up in the wake of Frank White’s manic slash-and-burn across New York by night, chances are you’ll have a really good time watching this film. A young Laurence (here billed as Larry) Fishburne puts in an excellent turn as Walken’s psychotic right-hand man, and David Caruso is highly entertaining as a hot-headed cop determined to dethrone the King of New York no matter what the cost.

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tl;dr: Noisy, violent and debauched, King Of New York is a modern day Robin Hood story as told by an artisan of grimy immorality. Walken is mesmerising even when he stars in turkeys, but here he puts on one of the most formidably intense showings of his career. It might not make a lot of sense at times, but for fans of hard-edged gangster films, this is a must-see.

Demolition Man

(Brambilla, 1993)

In the early nineties, Sylvester Stallone was going through something of a rocky period in his acting career (sorry, sorry). After both of his bankable franchises started to dry up, he found himself starring in everything from the tedious (Oscar) to the deplorable (Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot). 1993 found him back in the full-on action saddle with Demolition Man, a Joel Silver produced sci-fi comedy/action flick.

Stallone plays the improbably-named John Spartan, a hard-boiled cop who earned the nickname ‘Demolition Man’ from his habit of bringing the house down in flames whenever he sets his sights on a perp. Unfortunately, during the pursuit of one particularly dangerous criminal named Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), Spartan’s actions result in tragedy, resulting in a trip to cryo prison, where criminals are literally put on ice until they have served their debt to society.

Awoken some decades later, Spartan finds himself in a future metropolis that has outlawed anything considered ‘bad’, including smoking, swearing and most forms of physical contact. Those who choose to accept the ultra-restrictive laws enjoy a bizarrely serene existence on the surface of San Angeles, an amalgamated city formed after violent earthquakes left the violent society of old as rubble. Those who reject the benign, if authoritarian ways of the future are forced to exist in squalor in the tunnels beneath the city, where a sarcastic, cynical rebel (Denis Leary) encourages them to rise up in defiance of their joyless world’s order.

Spartan realises that the world he’s been thawed into isn’t all peace and love, since Phoenix has somehow managed to escape the freezer and is cutting a deadly swathe across a city which, having seen its last murder some 22 years prior, has no idea how to deal with a merciless psychopath like Simon Phoenix.

The futuristic world of 2032 is brought to life in a reasonably convincing fashion with electronic graffiti removal, video conferencing and auto-driving cars. The scenery is aesthetically clean and luminous, well illustrating a pleasant, if clinical world where putting salt on your food is taboo, and political correctness is law.

Stallone does a decent job as the man out of time, bemoaning a future devoid of all his earthly pleasures. The action scenes are all defenestration and broken bones, without anything particularly bloody or explicit. There’s a fair amount of humour – some more subtle and clever than the rest – and the film’s vision of a society as product of fear and self-censorship is well executed. Snipes puts on a great show as the magnificently deranged Phoenix, effortlessly stealing scenes from Stallone whenever they get down to it.

It’s not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but Demolition Man is still a good way ahead of most action films of the era. Despite the occasionally muddled fights scenes, this is a solid movie with an ambitious plot and some genuinely funny moments.

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tl;dr: One of the better Stallone action films of the post-80s era, this is a worthwhile rental for anyone who enjoys a bit of gung-ho cinematic escapism. Neither too pretentious nor too brainless, it’s surprisingly witty in parts. Thoroughly entertaining.

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