'King of New York' - High-Def Digest review

[jed]

Kenneth's 'King of New York' review is up. Although he was pleased to see this Blu-ray edition carry over all of the supplements from the 2-disc Special Edition DVD, he says both the video transfer and the audio pale in comparison to top tier catalog releases.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1037/kingofnewyork.html

[Onslaught X]

I read this as Gangs of New York >.>

[DoTellAll4U]

I swear to GOD himself that I am not being argumentative for no reason, but this is another rough review from Ken. This is a cult classic and Notorious BIG actually made his alias "Frank White" after Christopher Walken's character. It is a bit "New Jack City" at times and the fight scenes are a tad hokey, but the STELLAR cast and an incredible job by Walken himself make it a must rent or buy for ALL hip-hop fans (if you liked Warriors) and gangster flicks fanatics. LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, the STORYLINE for THIS movie and Sopranos Season 6 PT. II are 2.5 stars according to "Ken", while the Kung Fu Hustle storyline was 5 stars. WOW. Also, I also thought the video transfer was VERY nice compared to many other semi-old movies I've seen lately on Blu-Ray. I have a Sony KDS-R60XBR2, a properly set up PS3 for Blu-Rays as noted below, and a Monster 5100 power center.
*********Note for ALL PS3 Blu-Ray Users: Make sure you go into Video Settings and set it to----RGB & Full (Auto & Limited are the WRONG choice). Then bump your brightness up several notches. This will add alot to your picture quality if you have a nice set. Your Welcome.


My Personal Review:

Movie Itself: 3.5 Stars
HD Video Quality: 3.5 Stars
HD Audio Quality 3.5 Stars
Supplements/Extras: WHO CARES!!!!!!!!

Overall: I recommend watching the movie 4 sure. I am not telling you to sleep over night on Black Friday to save $5 on this movie, but I would check it out one way or another (that doesn't mean you need to buy it Ken).

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by DoTellAll4U

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, the STORYLINE for THIS movie and Sopranos Season 6 PT. II are 2.5 stars according to "Ken", while the Kung Fu Hustle storyline was 5 stars. WOW.

It's my job to give an opinion -- no need to get so upset. Different people like different things. If we disagree on a couple things, chances are we'll disagree on many things. It's the nature of personal taste.

Thanks for posting though! I always enjoy reading what other viewers think.

[DoTellAll4U]

Maybe they need to find another writer for the gangster flick genre. That is evident by your overall ratings.

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by DoTellAll4U

Maybe they need to find another writer for the gangster flick genre. That is evident by your overall ratings.

By the by, 'American Gangster' was amazing. Anyone who didn't catch it this weekend in theaters should check it out. The performances, direction, and script were top notch.

[Lucifuge]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

It's my job to give an opinion -- no need to get so upset. Different people like different things. If we disagree on a couple things, chances are we'll disagree on many things. It's the nature of personal taste.

Thanks for posting though! I always enjoy reading what other viewers think.

I'll agree to disagree with you on this one (regarding the film itself). We can debate the technical aspects of any disc to death but taste is subjective. KoNY is one of my favorite crime/gangster movies ever, and certainly has one of the best performances of the genre from Mr. Walken. Not surprised if the high-def treatment wasn't spectacular though. It's not the type of film that would've benefited much from it anyway, IMO.

[bases1616]

Good review by Ken Brown, but the BD shows an option of DTS HD 7.1 not 6.1. Can anyone else confirm this? It is downgraded to DTS 1.5 mbps on the PS3 anyway.

[Arkadin]

very dissapointing regarding pq. even with the age of the film, everyone knows a full on remastering of the original negative would have made this look 100% better. They obviously used the master from 2004, and worked with it a little. Oh well. maybe next time.

[Dyers Eve]

Originally Posted by DoTellAll4U

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, the STORYLINE for THIS movie and Sopranos Season 6 PT. II are 2.5 stars according to "Ken", while the Kung Fu Hustle storyline was 5 stars. WOW.

Kung Fu Hustle was a freaking awesome movie.

[mrkiller]

Originally Posted by Dyers Eve

Kung Fu Hustle was a freaking awesome movie.

it was quite entertaining but it was a more of a rent, it didnt have much replay value.

[Citizen Erased]

Sorry this is a very bad review, King of New York is a cult classic and deserves much more respect. Forget about crap like Spiderman and the Disney movies. This is the one single playstation disc that I would actually kill to see released on HD!

Right now it's being outsold on amazon by it's (+5 year old?) dvd release. This films deserves to sell so much more

[davcole]

Wow, a two year bump but had to comment on this one.

I sometimes forget how good a film this is. Along with Walken being perfect for the Frank White character, look at all the other actors in the film before they hit big time:

Laurence Fishburne
David Caruso
Wesley Snipes

This film was before their breakout performances.

As for the video, all I can say is WOW, I didn't expect it to look this good!! No, it's not perfect but I remember renting this on DVD and quite honestly it looked pretty bland. I was suprised the clarity of the image, even in the darker interior scenes it still looked good.

As for the audio, there's absolutely nothing to get excited about. Very compressed sounding.

It is DTS HR 6.1.

[rn101787]

I wanted to watch this a while back, BB had it recently for $10 and I was hesitant to buy it. I'm a big gangster/mob movie person, is it really good?

[Out_for_Justice]

Originally Posted by rn101787

I wanted to watch this a while back, BB had it recently for $10 and I was hesitant to buy it. I'm a big gangster/mob movie person, is it really good?

If you're a gangster/mafia enthusiast then its essential viewing. Its a lot more action oriented than most gangster films, but not in a bad way. Frank White is one of Walken's best roles and there's also respectable performances from early Larry Fishburne, David Caruso and Wesley Snipes.

It has some classic lines in it too: "If a nickel bag gets sold in the park I want IN. "

I definitely recommended it.