Thursday, November 1, 2018

Thursday Movie Picks: Gangsters


31 Days of Horror gives way to Turkey Month. For me, that also means we're just a few weeks away from Girl Week. More on that at a later date. In the present, the beginning of November coincides with Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's topic is one near and dear to my cinematic heart: gangsters. There are well over 100 films dealing with them in some form or another in my personal movie collection. And if I ever finish The 100 Project, you'll notice that quite a few of them rank among my all-time favorites. That said, I realize that my picks lately have been on the easy side. Therefore, I'm going to try and dig just a little deeper and stay away from the (too) obvious. Let's see how I do.


King of New York
(1990)
When drug kingpin Frank White gets out of prison, he goes right to the streets to reclaim what's his. Epicness ensues. The lead role is manned by none other than Christopher Walken in all the Christopher Walkenness he can muster. He doesn't go it alone, though. His supporting cast is nothing short of amazing: Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso, Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito, Victor Argo, Theresa Randle, John Turturro, and most important to today's exercise, Wesley Snipes.

Frank's Most Gangsta Quote: "From now on, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it's my turn."


New Jack City
(1991)
Small-time, but ambitious drug dealer Nino Brown goes big with the advent of crack. Most famously, in hip hop culture anyway, he and his minions take over an apartment building known as The Carter. Former real-life gangsta and rapper Ice-T appears in his first major role, not as Nino, but as the cop hellbent on putting him behind bars. Judd Nelson plays his partner, and Chris Rock nearly steals the show as Pookie. He doesn't quite manage to do so because of the man playing Nino Brown. Wesley Snipes holds down the role and is just a big ball of charisma.

Nino's Most Gangsta Quote: "Yeah, we takin' over the Carter. We gon' bum rush the whole damn thing. Now if the tenants cooperate, oh, it'll be lovely. They'll be loyal customers. If not, fuck it, it'll be like in Beirut. They'll be live-in hostages."


Sugar Hill
(1993)
Alongside his brother Raynathan, Roemello Skuggs has risen to the top of the drug game and has been there for quite some time. He's tired of the life and is trying to get out, but of course, that's not so easy. This is the more mature, and underappreciated, cousin of New Jack City. Like the other films here, it boasts a talented cast. Michael Wright plays the flashier role as Raynathan. Other parts are handled by the likes of Ernie Hudson, Abe Vigoda, Theresa Randle, Leslie Uggams, and Clarence Williams III. The role of Roemello, our gangsta who wants to get out, is handled wonderfully by Wesley Snipes.

Roemello's Most Gangsta Quote: "Look Lolly, I think we need to call a truce. You don't hit my men, I won't hit yours. You don't hurt my brother... and I won't take your whole family. We'll work it out so you can get a piece of the action. Ok, chump? I mean champ. My word is bond."



19 comments:

  1. I haven't seen King of New York as I've been wanting to watch that due to my love for Walken and interest towards Abel Ferrara. The other 2 picks are awesome as I love with what you went in a theme within a theme as it relates to Wesley Snipes (who needs a comeback). Sugar Hill I thought was a pretty good movie while New Jack City.... "This ain't business bitch! This is personal! I wanna shoot you so bad, my dick's hard".

    I too strayed from the obvious as I also went on a theme-within-a-theme.

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    1. I think you'll have a blast watching King of New York. Hope you get to it soon.

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  2. I haven't seen any of these but I've been meaning to watch King of New York since always because of the cast, specifically Christopher Walker.

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  3. I'm 0/3 on your picks this week. The only one of these I was familiar with was Sugar Hill. They all look interesting to me.

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    1. Strange that that's the one you're familiar with because it's the least popular of the three, lol. Hope you get to see them all.

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  4. A theme within the theme! Love those. I saw New Jack City a long time ago and wasn't really much of a fan though Snipes was charismatic as he always was before he went off the rails. I've heard of the other two and will probably see the first one of these days because of the odd but always interesting Walken.

    Since this is such a wide open category I needed a hook to narrow it down. So I themed mine out as well with one of the ultimate gangster stars-James Cagney.

    The Public Enemy (1931)-Tom Powers (Cagney-in the role that made him a major star) is a small-time hood, vicious and consciousless who climbs to success on the back of Prohibition and his willingness to do whatever necessary-rob, maim, kill-to gain advantage. The film chronicles that rise, and fall, as well as his entanglement with two women Gwen (Jean Harlow, this was one of her earliest appearances, don’t judge her on it-she’s awful-look to her MGM comedies where
    she’s great) and Kitty (Mae Clarke) who famously receives a grapefruit in her kisser when she mouths off to Cagney. This William Wellman directed picture is one of the formative films in creating the gangster drama.

    The Roaring Twenties (1939)-Eddie Bartlett (Cagney), George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) and Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn) strike up a friendship in a foxhole during WWI. Once back in the States they go their separate ways but eventually circumstances bring them back together in the bootlegging business where they find enormous success until jealousies, rivalries and the stock market crash brings it all tumbling down. One of the last great gangster films of the 30’s with a fantastic cast including Priscilla Lane and a scene stealing Gladys George as the lovelorn songbird Panama Smith who delivers the film’s iconic last line.

    Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)-Amoral gangster Ralph Cotter (Cagney) breaks out of prison along with fellow prisoner Carleton (Neville Brand).When Carlton is injured Cotter murders him to speed his escape and jumps right back into crime blackmailing Carleton’s sister Holiday (Barbara Payton) into a relationship to conceal her part in aiding their jailbreak. Discovering graft Cotter pressures a couple of crooked cops (Barton MacLane and Ward Bond) and an equally corrupt lawyer (Luther Adler) into a scheme to bilk heiress Margaret Dobson (Helena Carter) out of a fortune. Things do not go as planned. This was the highpoint of leading lady Barbara Payton’s career. A beautiful if somewhat hard looking blonde at this time she was considered a rising star but after a scandal plagued and notorious career she fell as far as it’s possible to go ending up a drug addicted skid row hooker (once being mistaken for a pile of garbage after being left next to a dumpster following a beating) before her death from organ failure at 39.

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    1. King of New York deserves to be seen.

      I love The Public Enemy and The Roaring Twenties. Very nearly picked them both when I thought about doing a Cagney theme, myself. I haven't seen Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, yet.

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  5. I haven't seen any of these, but King of New York has been on my list for a while.

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  6. My favorite quote from New Jack City is, "Sit yo five dolla ass down before I make change!"

    King of New York should be better known.

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    1. Truth told, that's my favorite quote, too. Not sure why I didn't go with it. Sigh.

      Yes.

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  7. One thing you are very good at is picking films very few people have seen. No different this time haha. Haven't seen any of your picks

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  8. Oh goodness I forgot about Sugar Hill. Haven't seen it in ages.

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  9. Not seen either of them. But New Jack City is such a wonderful name. Would be curious to see them.

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  10. A Wesley Snipes theme going on. I am late to this week's party! I haven't seen any of these but I know of them and now they are on my list to see

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