One Eyed King (2001)

The Irish in Hell's Kitchen, New York, maybe but rather in Satan's brine of a brain. Five kids swear to be friends forever but they want to get the moon without working their backside too hard. So they do small mediocre little deals under the complacent and tolerant eyes of the local Irish gang-leader and the local Irish police inspector. What happens is the natural consequence of that mediocrity. One of the five will one day dream big and go to the gang-leader who will see him as a competitor, so the gang-leader will trick him into a complete funky flunk and one will be killed by another, and a third one will commit suicide and a fourth one will have to have a bloody fight with the gang-leader under the protective eye of the cop for the cop finally to clean up the place in the most ineffective way possible: by terminating the gangster with a good old police bullet. And the other tricked one will finally pass justice over himself and jump from the roof. One will survive happily married and the other one will escape with the sister of the first one who got killed. More melodramatic you die. Sickening by excess. This vision of Irish crime or Irish police work or even Irish love does not compare with the nearly mundane bel canto of the mafia, or the rustic gory pitiless vociferations of the Russian or the Georgian mafias, or even the sly treacherous vicious praying mills of those who lock themselves in some kind of exclusive religion, no matter which, Christians Born Again or Islamic Fundamentalism or yoga transcendentalism. The film in other words sounds pretty critical of the Irish, if not plainly racist towards them: they are not even able to be good gangsters exploiting their brothers and sisters.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

good story, great cast, good acting---a low budget sleeper---Baldwin good, Assante great as ever and Leo Rossi in a good supporting role---some of the best parts played by relative unknowns---and Jason Gedrick as a junkie???---who would have thought---but it works---made in 2001,sat on the shelf too long---just as good as Sean Penn's movie about the Westies---a poor man's "mean streets"--Chaz Palmentierri is great as the neighborhood cop, --- i think that they could have beefed up his part a little more, but his performance is solid as ever--a new york guy for a new york role---i think that the exteriors were shot right in hell's kitchen---good ending ties up the story--well done

For a movie shot on High-Def Video, it's not bad. For a movie shot on HD-DV and with a cast including Chazz Palminteri, Armand Assante and William Baldwin, it ain't that bad. Still, this is far from a great movie. Some scenes are well shot while others look like they shot on Mini-DV tape. The acting is at best, amateur. Then again, the movie flows every time Armand Assante is talking. The best part of the movie was a surprise role played by comedian Jim Breuer. He is total comic relief, still, he is treated like a supporting actor and is only in 1/4 of the movie. Still, his addition to the cast is great. Too long for a movie that is predictable. The narration was not needed and the movie should have ran a little over 90 minutes instead of the 1 hour and 5 minutes. By 90 minutes, half the audience has already given up on wanting to know how the movie ends because the narration gives it away in the start of the movie. Plus, the roof top scene takes away any notion that these two friends are going to remain friends. In ways, the narration tried to be more of a Goodfellas voice over, and failed. An OK film, a step in the good direction for those film makers who want to shoot on HD-DV.

This movie came out on 2001 but it just has been released on video in 2004.William Baldwin plays a guy who wants to bring his low level gangster buddies back to reality like having a wife or children, but instead his friends deal drugs and commit other crimes under the watch of Holly (Armand Assante)This is a pretty good movie, but it does have weaknesses like: The editing of some scenes (most of the flashbacks) come at the wrong time and it's confusing. Other that that all the performances are pretty decent. The stand out is Armand Assante as Holly. Holly seems like a nice guy but if you double cross him he'll kill you in a heartbeat. Assante does an excellent job, bringing out the psycho aspects of the character. Overall, the movie is worth seeing.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com