One Eyed King

Color, R (mature themes, language, violence, drug use), 93 min., DVD $24.98, VHS rental

DVD: no extras

Street: Aug. 31, Prebook: Aug. 5

First Run: Video Premiere

Cast: William Baldwin (Backdraft), Armand Assante (Gotti), Connie Britton (The Brothers McMullen), Chazz Palminteri (The Usual Suspects)

VELOCITY

Story Line: Irish mobster Frankie Thomas (Baldwin) and his childhood buddies haven't amounted to very much, but gang boss Holly (Assante) predicts big things for Frankie. The death of a close friend threatens to tear their world apart, however, and learning the truth becomes more important to Frankie than his mob connections.

Bottom Line: The influence of Martin Scorsese is easy to detect in this first feature film of New York stage director and occasional TV writer Moresco. King's mobsters and street punks are mostly Irish instead of Italian, but otherwise this is a creditable attempt to emulate Scorsese's Mean Streets, with a nod to GoodFellas as well. The story is rather hackneyed and the direction occasionally heavy-handed, but the dialogue is sharp and Moresco has the advantages of a terrific second-tier cast (which also includes Bruno Kirby, Jason Gedrick, Leo Rossi and Jim Breuer) and nice location shooting to lend the project some edge. With the gangster genre still on the upswing and recognizable names to splash all over the box, One Eyed King should be a dependable rental item. --Ed Hulse

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