The King of New York
Christopher Walken, Larry Fishburne, and Abel Ferrara’s moral abyss of a movie. This week, the dads descend into King of New York, the neon-slick crime drama that turns Manhattan into a fever dream of violence, power, and warped justice.
Walken plays Frank White, a freshly released drug lord who wants to “give back” — but only by murdering every rival and funding a hospital with blood money. His crew? Mostly Black. His moral compass? Bent beyond repair. His dance moves? Still pure Walken.
What we cover
- Crime and capitalism: Frank’s twisted logic — kill the competition, save the city.
- The Walken mystique: Dead eyes, slick hair, spontaneous robot dances.
- Larry Fishburne’s “Jimmy Jump”: One of the great chaotic sidekicks — all swagger, coke, and AK-47s.
- Cops vs crooks: Caruso and Snipes as furious detectives who decide to skip due process and go full vigilante.
- Ferrara’s vision: A New York that’s nihilistic, sweaty, and corrupt from top to bottom.
- The politics of power: Race, class, loyalty, and the delusion of doing “good” through evil.
- The ending: Blood, subways, and one of Walken’s best death scenes — calm, eerie, inevitable.
Why listen?
Because it’s peak Bad Dads territory: a film that’s stylish, sleazy, and morally bankrupt, yet impossible to look away from. We argue about whether Frank’s warped Robin Hood act has any truth to it, trade notes on 1990s cop-movie chaos, and try to work out how this didn’t end every actor’s career.
🎧 Press play for a deep dive into Ferrara’s urban hellscape — all pulse, no conscience — and stick around for the laughs, tangents, and the lads’ own King of Jersey ambitions.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
