King of the Avenue (2010)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Redundant and unnecessary.

Powerful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This one had potential to be a quirky, unearthly combination of the supernatural and gangsters. Think Innocent Blood (1992). Even done in a low-budget hack job it could have been quite a hoot. But...The lead actor is quite a dead-serious voice-over embarrassment and the gangsters are less than Comic-Book enticing. Only the Demon from Hell and his creepy demeanor and slaughterhouse shenanigans add any fun to this, as the family in peril backdrop subtext is weak and mishandled to the point of distraction. It has a good "Twilight Zone" twist but it doesn't save it from Indie Movie indifference.Worth viewing for the better, brutal parts and Horror Movie splatter. However it is the smarmy child protection and the "I will not raise a punk" inclusions that stall this one from becoming an overtly outrageous display of Grindhouse gory glory.

This movie is not that bad. What would one expect in a movie about a dope dealer selling his soul to the devil? The Devil and Daniel Webster? But what I found in the movie was a alternating view of the oft told tale of Mephistopheles. The view is that Mephistopheles was a collector of souls of the damned. And that is exactly, I am sure not intentionally, what this movie is about. Every dope dealer who has a name is killed because the main character makes a deal to be the biggest drug dealer in his city. I find the leading actor acted like he was in a comedy. The supporting characters were way more interesting. Ving Rhames you can tell is having a ball. Who could take this move seriously? It was a DMX /Scarface redux. The deal hinges on the soon to be King dope dealers wife and child getting killed if he does not take the deal. So he lives a double life the wife and his kids has no idea about. In any case the movie is entertaining if you like gore and shot outs. And you can suspend reality for a for a hour and a half. If not stay clear. But it is not any worse then most of the garbage out there. Just to see Ving Rhames hamming it up and having a ball.

The movie is about drug dealer Taz, whom has a wife and family that don't know he's a drug dealer. He has a separate house and girl on the side. He wants to be King of the Avenue, like his father was before he was killed. Enter the devil that makes him an offer. He sends a demon whom needs a loved one's body to exist in, so Taz uses his father's body, Norman. So Norman comes back and all these really terrible and gory things happen to the other bosses. They meet violent ends paving the way for Taz.Then at the end there is the twist ending. The question is: was there really a demon or was Taz committing all the murders? The film explains it in the end.FINAL VERDICT: About the only thing the movie has going for it was some cool death scenes and blood. Plus Ving Rhames is just plain cool. Worth checking out if you can catch it on cable.

This was one of those films that was great from start to finish. I have been a fan of Ryan Combs since the Straight out of Compton days and I have literally watched his growth from movies I found amusing, to films that I remember in my everyday life. King Of The Avenue is a fantastic character movie. You actually fell like your part of this crew of men who have one thing on there mind, becoming the king. It's fun to watch them elevate to the top crew, but really, that's when the movie starts. I know this is a independent, but I think this is one of the best roles I've seen Ving Rhames in. My girlfriend and I voted Ving Rhames as the last person we would want to run into in a dark alley, or a park on a nice summers day for that matter. Ving is awesome in this film.