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Never Die Alone (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:88
Fresh:23
Rotten:65
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: DMX's menacing charisma is put to good use in this stylish but hackneyed modern-day noir.
Runtime: 89 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $5,531,230
Synopsis: Based on cult novelist Donald Goines’ novel of the same name, NEVER DIE ALONE is a richly literate film noir about King David (DMX), a hard-boiled, stylish criminal who returns to his hometown... Based on cult novelist Donald Goines’ novel of the same name, NEVER DIE ALONE is a richly literate film noir about King David (DMX), a hard-boiled, stylish criminal who returns to his hometown seeking redemption but finding only violent death. But he did not die alone...King David’s final moments are spent with Paul (David Arquette) an aspiring journalist who knew him just a few minutes but upon whose life he would forever have an impact. King David – half preacher, half Satan, and all street smarts – had recorded the story of his recent exploits on audiotape, leaving behind an often-poetic sermon on villainy and its consequences. The tapes reveal that the cycle of violence and retribution his actions have spawned has come back on him full circle, as he suspected it might all along... One of the most prolific and widely read black authors of his generation, Donald Goines wrote his first two books while incarcerated, and followed those with an astonishing 16 novels written from the time he was released from prison in 1970 until he was shot to death in 1974. The film is directed by Ernest Dickerson whose directorial debut was the 1992 drama JUICE, starring Omar Epps and the late Tupac Shakur. Previously Dickerson served as Director of Photography on seven of Spike Lee’s early films up to and including MALCOLM X. He has directed a number of feature and made-for-TV films from the recent horror movie BONES starring Snoop Dogg to the Peabody Award-winning Showtime movie "Strange Justice," based on the controversy surrounding Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. Dickerson most recently directed the drama GOOD FENCES, starring Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg, which had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. DMX is a top rap artist who has also found great success in the film business. He starred opposite Jet Li in CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE and also appeared in BELLY, ROMEO MUST DIE and EXIT WOUNDS, for which he received a Blockbuster Breakthrough Actor nomination. His first four albums debuted at number one and sold well over 22 million records in just four years. David Arquette starred in the box office smash hits SCREAM 1, 2 and 3, which won him the Blockbuster Favorite Actor Award in 1998. For his leading role in NEVER BEEN KISSED, he was awarded the 2000 Blockbuster Award for Favorite Supporting Actor. He recently drew acclaim for his portrayal of an inmate at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Tim Blake Nelson’s drama THE GREY ZONE. -- © Fox Searchlight [More]
Starring: DMX, David Arquette, Michael Ealy, Reagan Preston-Gomez
Starring: DMX, David Arquette, Michael Ealy, Reagan Preston-Gomez, Clifton Powell
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Screenwriter: James Gibson
Producer: Earl Simmons, Alessandro Camon
Composer: George Duke
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Reviews for Never Die Alone
Purports to be literate film noir but comes off more like the overwritten project of a film school kid who just memorized his textbook on the style.
Although the flashbacks within flashbacks within some more flashbacks structure is overly convoluted, Dickerson's visual flair and Stephen Lovejoy's crisp editing actually make the story easy to follow, if not to believe.
A pimped-up facsimile of David Goines' novel. I can't think of a more apt description of this misogynist and deeply flawed film noir.
Hampered by its convoluted plot and a marked melodramatic streak that counteracts the film's cool factor.
Instead of insight or character or milieu or anything else remotely worth exploring, we get bad attitude, lousy storytelling and abysmal performances.
Ernest Dickerson's film recycles a cinematic standby -- it's narrated by a corpse, telling us how he got that way -- but the movie's scuzzy beauty keeps it intriguing.
It's too bad the filmmakers couldn't find a way to present [Goines's] vision without resorting to some pretty threadbare clichés.
This is not a workable drama, just a series of ideas that rap stars who worship Scarface think would be cool to see.
Never Die Alone makes each viewer die alone, but shared laughter with other customers may forge a death-pact bond.
This throwback to the outmoded blaxploitation genre is skillfully filmed by Dickerson, but has little else to offer besides cheap, violent thrills.
What makes Never Die Alone so monumentally terrible isn't just its bearhugging of gangsta flick convention, but its desperate attempt to imbue run-of-the-mill crime with noir classicism.
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