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DVD/Blu-ray: King of New York (18)

 

Ben Walsh
Thursday 12 July 2012 15:35 BST
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"You're like a machine, Mia," explains Peter Wight's podgy handler to his best assassin, a pre-op transsexual gamely played by Chloë Sevigny, patchy Irish accent and all.

Christopher Walken stars as the deranged criminal kingpin Frank White in Abel Ferrara's wildly over-the-top and bullet-drenched gangster yarn. Frank is released from the joint (watch out for Walken's wonderful fresh-out-of-jail dance) and he's grimly determined to gobble up New York's drugs trade, aided by his bloodthirsty pal, Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne, gamey). This graphic thriller is saved by a giddy turn from Walken, who makes Jimmy Cagney's Cody Jarrett look like a cuddly gerbil.

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