The ever changing Times Square is at its sleaziest in this delightfully over the top crime drama where a private club right inside the New Amsterdam Theater, post Ziegfeld Follies and pre Lion King reconstruction. This is the type of club where the wrong guest gets electrocuted while receiving a massage which leads to a chase down the West Side Highway where the psycho killer is shooting at everything while driving a stolen cop car. He earlier got arrested by cop Sam Neill while preparing to trade sex for drugs for an obviously strung out white woman whose screams are heard as he is taken away without providing her much needed fix. Along with him is the head of this ring played by character actor Antonio Fargas who just reeks of sleazieness in the way he acts out this character, just as he did as Angie's father on "All My Children". The shot of a bus advertising "Starlight Express" is another amusing metaphor.
Give up all sense of reality as Neill and public defense Peter Weller take on the mob here with plenty of violence and ironic humor, and a conclusion in light of events 13 years later quite frightening and prophetic. Weller is defending a young pusher for killing an undercover cop, and this means dealing with the worst of New York City late 80's society. Normally I would give films like this a lower rating but I was so entertained and riveted that I couldn't help but thoroughly enjoy it. Neill and Weller are a great team here, and I am surprised that they didn't attempt a sequel. The soap opera story surrounding his marital issues is completely inconsiquential.
"On the streets of this city, you are the law, but on the steps of this court, I am the law." So says the glamorous Augusta Dabney as the judge in the trial, a very popular soap actress for 35 years, and the wife of William Prince, a veteran character actor who has a bit part in this film. It's nice to see her in such a commanding part after playing the wealthy but gentle matriarch Isabelle Alden on "Loving". In a bit part, veteran stage and screen character actress Shirley Stoler (an actress I presumed was unable to smile) manages a charming smirk when Weller amuses her as he tries to enter the Tombs. This is a film you won't soon forget, especially with the plane ride over lower Manhattan that isn't without its danger.
Give up all sense of reality as Neill and public defense Peter Weller take on the mob here with plenty of violence and ironic humor, and a conclusion in light of events 13 years later quite frightening and prophetic. Weller is defending a young pusher for killing an undercover cop, and this means dealing with the worst of New York City late 80's society. Normally I would give films like this a lower rating but I was so entertained and riveted that I couldn't help but thoroughly enjoy it. Neill and Weller are a great team here, and I am surprised that they didn't attempt a sequel. The soap opera story surrounding his marital issues is completely inconsiquential.
"On the streets of this city, you are the law, but on the steps of this court, I am the law." So says the glamorous Augusta Dabney as the judge in the trial, a very popular soap actress for 35 years, and the wife of William Prince, a veteran character actor who has a bit part in this film. It's nice to see her in such a commanding part after playing the wealthy but gentle matriarch Isabelle Alden on "Loving". In a bit part, veteran stage and screen character actress Shirley Stoler (an actress I presumed was unable to smile) manages a charming smirk when Weller amuses her as he tries to enter the Tombs. This is a film you won't soon forget, especially with the plane ride over lower Manhattan that isn't without its danger.