I love this movie so much

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I remember when I first saw the poster for "Never Die Alone". I thought they were cashing in on DMX's turn in Exit Wounds and now he was getting his own action flick. The trailer just cemented this idea. Now having finally seen it, do I realize how wrong I was. Yeah, there's gangstas, there's killings, there's dope, there's even a DMX track or two within, but this ain't no action movie. I've seen a lot of dark movies featuring dark people, but this nearly tops them. The sad and depressing antics feel too real. Forget that this is based on a novel. The situation, the main character, you know they exist in real life. This guy, King David, as he's called, is one piece of work. I know very little about DMX, his life, his career, but I couldn't help but wonder where the character began and he ended. That there is the most positive aspect of "Never Die Alone". DMX can be commended in all the right-is-wrong ways, but the movie on a fundamental level is flawed.The story, the cast of characters, ride the line between adequate and embarrassing. David Arquette's role as the writer, basically the bridge of the tale, is hackneyed and Arquette is no thespian actor. Michael Ealy's character and his connection to both King David and his drug boss employer is mix of lame poorly executed ideas and unsatisfying conclusions and the whole theme of the movie is obvious from frame one. Intended to be a dark drama, "Never Die Alone" ultimately ends up being a pretentious glance at the surface of a drug pusher and the people caught in his blast radius.

This is Donald Goines, not some wanna be street wise Tarantino Pulp Fiction junk. This movie will not appeal to those looking for a hero or a silver lining. You don't necessarily have had to live this kind of life, but it helps to understand the characters' motivations. The film doesn't glorify violence, misogyny, or the hustla's lifestyle. Life is not always clearly defined. There is not always a clear line between a hero and a villain. We all make choices and we all have to live with the consequences. You don't have to agree with the lifestyles of the characters in this film, but you should realize that this film was based on the real life experiences of the author. The street life, not as you want it to be, as you wish it to be, but as it is. "Never Die Alone" presents this lifestyle. 'It ain't where you from, it's where you at', not just physically but mentally.

At first glance of the film's movie poster, many viewers, before seeing Ernest Dickerson's Never Die Alone (2004), will assume it is an action picture like Scarface (1983) and New Jack City (1991). This isn't an action picture, but a drama, although it does deserve comparison to the latter movies.Never Die Alone is the story of a viscous, cold blooded, and evil man known as King David. As the movie opens, King David (DMX) is laying dead in a coffin. Many will see this as a spoiler, but it isn't. This movie isn't about the events that occur, but about the story and the characters.As the film opens, King David has returned from Los Angeles to New York to repay a debt to a drug dealer known as Moon (Clifton Powell). Moon sends his boy, Mike (Michael Ealy), and another man to collect the money.But then the pickup turns violent against Moon's request, and King David ends up getting stabbed in the process. He is helped by Paul (David Arquette), an earnest journalist who hangs around in the tough streets of Harlem. Paul comes to the aid of David, and, of course, King David dies.Upon his death, King David gives Paul a nice car, money, jewelry, and eventually, Paul finds a collection of audiotapes chronicling the last ten years of David's life.We learn that King David was a ladies' man. The women in his life were all drug users. But what King David does to these three women is monstrous: he falls in love with them, gets to know them, then hooks them on cocaine. Then he switches them to heroin without them knowing. What's monstrous is when he decides to give them a little "test." DMX, as King David, is hard and cold. Just as we begin to care and show sympathy for King David, we begin to show hatred towards this vile, and evil man. Through flashbacks and events, we realize that King David is a man who shows no apologies for the evil things he's done, and he makes them look like an everyday activity.The film also seems to suggest that there is some sort of connection between both Mike and King David.DMX has done some terrible films in the past, such as Romeo Must Die (2000), Exit Wounds (2001), and Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), which were all mindless action pictures meant to entertain, but in Never Die Alone, he gives his best performance up to date.Never Die Alone is a good movie, but I felt that David Arquette's character was poorly developed, but he gives a good performance, anyway. In the end we never know whether he has shown remorse for King David or felt that he deserved to die for what he's done. But Paul is more of a pawn than a mover to the plot. Half the time, he doesn't realize how much danger he's putting his life in, such as when he drives around in King David's car.Cinematographer-turned-director Ernest Dickerson creates a dark atmosphere and he keeps the film dark to the very end. He keeps the action scenes brief and brutal, and it doesn't distract the viewer away from the plot. This is his strongest work.Never Die Alone is not an action picture. It's a movie about an evil man, who shows no apologies for the evil things he's done to others. By the end, the movie asks Paul, the journalist, and even the viewer, do you think King David really deserved to die?

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs Drug kingpin King David (DMX) returns to his hometown to settle some old scores.However,when an exchange goes wrong,he finds his life coming to a premature end.An intrepid reporter (David Arquette) discovers some tapes where he tells the story of his life up to the point of his death and decides to use them to compile a report.However,as a witness to the crime,he is also being head-hunted by those responsible for David's death...Former rap star turned actor DMX's career up to this point has mostly consisted of co-starring roles in action movies such as Exit Wounds and Cradle 2 the Grave.So at first glance of this little caper,it's hard not to approach it as a similar such film,only with him in the lead.The front cover has him pointing two guns down at the floor in the style of an action film.Even the title sounds like the latest James Bond movie!But nothing could in fact be further from the truth.This is a thoughtful,well-written,and,in it's own way,rather sensitive tale of retribution,responsibility and redemption.You could say it was a bit under-long,but it's actually rather admirable that such an involving story with it's tough themes is skillfully crammed into such a short running time.DMX is a much better than you might have thought and carries what must be his most prominent film to date with an engaging raw sensitivity and power that is most impressive.Another recommendable quality of the film is the grainy noir style it is shot in,adding a Channel 4 art-house kind of feel to it that would set it apart from any other film of it's kind.It obviously didn't have the star power that it thought it had to arrive in theatres on this side of the Atlantic,but it's a recommendable film none-the-less,shaky,raw,powerful and,of course,with a hollering,growling soundtrack from the Darkman himself.See it.****