One Eyed King (2002)

One Eyed King

Decent movie. I enjoyed the acting mostly. The actors carried the movie. The plot was good, but overdone. c+ November 28, 2008

Can they be more miserable?

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
June 8, 2008

one eyed king

i like the music the best but there was no soundtrac made March 25, 2007

In The Land Of The Blind...

Despite director Nathaniel Ryan's obvious desire to be a Scorsese imitator and over-the-top mobster cliches from writer Robert Moresco they've assembled a fine ensemble cast (William Baldwin, Armand Assante, Chazz Palminteri, Ricky Aiello, Leo Rossi among others) for this crime saga about five friends coping with life in an Irish mob in New York's Hell's Kitchen.

If you come across it at your local video store it's worth a rental. May 2, 2006

"One Eyed King" Review

Actually, it deserves 0 stars.

I'm a big fan of Chazz Palminteri and a big fan of mafia stories, but this one didn't cut the cake. I hate to give any movie a 1 star, but it deserves it. The story line was choppy, the acting wasn't on que, and it was hard to believe most of the characters. All in all, don't bother renting this. I couldn't even finish the movie. February 20, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...