Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Out for Lunch

Last night I was watching a 1990 film called King of New York, directed by Abel Ferrara. Christopher Walken stars as powerful drug baron Frank White, who at the opening of the film is released after a long stretch in prison. He returns to his old territory in New York City and immediately takes over his old gang and begins violently wiping out the competition, while also regaining his influence over the city's political elite. This time White decides to use some of his ill-gotten gains to finance an inner city hospital. However as White deals with rival gags and trechery within his own team, as well as three cops (David Caruso, Victor Argo and Wesley Snipes) who are determined to bring him in, events spiral violently out of control. The film is extremely violent and very bleak. Christopher Walken gives a superb performance in the central role, often looking genuinely sinister with his ghostly appearance. In it's original release the movie was a massive commercial failure but since then it has become quite a cult film. Abel Ferrara is a very prolific, but often very inconsistent, film-maker however this is defintiely one of his better films.

I was only in work for a half day today. At around midday I went along to the Ellwyn House Hotel for Owen's 30th birthday (which is a little over a week away), there were about six of us there and I had a prawn cocktail to start, followed by a sirloin steak with stuffing, potato and sausages, and finishing off with a slice of apple pie and cream, with two pints of Kronenbourg beer. It was pretty good. I got home at around three.

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