Never Die Alone

Plot synopsis:
Hardened criminal and drug dealer King David (DMX) returns to his unidentified East Coast city, where he can find redemption by settling an old score with drug lord Moon (Clifton Powell). He keeps tape-recorded journals about his life and is always talking about a woman named Edna. Upon David's return, he meets up with Jasper (Luenell), a barkeep who expresses a strong dislike towards him. She contacts Moon to inform him of his return and willingness to pay his debt, as well as momentarily passing by Paul (David Arquette), a struggling writer.
Mike (Michael Ealy), one of Moon's henchmen, is assigned to collect his boss's money from David, appearing to be very interested in him for some reason. Prior to the deal, he is warned to not sabotage the deal in order to avert police attention. He, his friend Blue (Antwon Tanner) and his sister Ella (Drew Sidora) go to David and collect the money. Mike is very tense upon arriving at the location of the pickup, prompting Blue to authorize it for him. After a brief but tense transaction between Blue and David, the latter is set up for an ambush. Mike angrily demands if David recognizes him, and proceeds to stab him multiple times in the abdomen after receiving several taunts. A weakened David stabs Blue in the eye with an ice pick before they abandon him in a gutter. Paul, who passes by at that moment, drives David, a total stranger, to the hospital.
Paul is informed that King has died and has left him all his personal possessions. The items include jewelry, his car (which is a rare Stutz Blackhawk), and a collection of his audio tapes. Meanwhile, Moon is unnerved by Mike botching the deal by using violence against David and becomes paranoid of police attention. After being informed of Blue's injury, he tells the two to wait in a parking garage for a car to come and drive them to the hospital. Instead, he sets them up as two henchmen shoot and kill Blue and Ella, to Mike's horror. Just before Mike can be killed himself, he gains gravity of the situation and guns down the henchmen, but is unable to retain his sister's life as she dies in his arms. He then vows revenge against Moon for the double-cross.
As Paul listens to the journal, the story of David's life is told: after a particularly bad drug experience in the east, David relocated to the west in search of a second chance. He finds assistance with the Vietnamese and even a new girlfriend, Janet (Jennifer Sky), whom he abuses. A television star, she turns to David's heroin and becomes sick and detached in the process. David abandons her as she presumably turns to selling his drugs to pay the bills and for her drug habit.
In the present, Moon sends out a duo of henchmen to kill Mike. Additionally, Moon learns of Paul's involvement in the situation from bystanders as his role of David's driver to the hospital, and requests for his murder, as well. Paul, meanwhile, continues to listen to the tapes; after he abandons Janet, David moves on to Juanita (Reagan Gomez-Preston), a college student that he meets in an upscale bar. Their relationship goes well as David starts to make a lot of money, but then Juanita tries his drugs. She doesn't get addicted, but she does turn out to be very selfish by refusing to move in with David, insisting that $250,000 isn't enough on which to retire. Angry, David secretly switches her cocaine with heroin, getting her addicted.
Paul realizes that the money David talked about might be in David's trunk. It is, but at the same time, Moon's henchmen are sprawling all over the city in search of him. Mike follows Moon's limo via cab to a secluded back-alley, at which he follows him into a bathhouse and proceeds to kill him.
Paul listens to the last tape; David leaves Juanita, but she soon comes back, addicted and begging for help. He agrees to help her out, providing her a drug fix in exchange for sex. The humiliation and disgrace shatters her dreams and causes her severe emotional distress, thus making her addictions even stronger. After a while, she demands that he pay for her entrance to rehabilitation or else she'll call the police. Enraged, David decides to do the same thing he did to Edna: mix her heroin with car battery acid, resulting in a fatal seizure for her. Through a flashback, it is revealed that David is the biological father of Mike, who is also Edna's child, and that David brutally hit him before poisoning Edna (which explains the scar on his face). The tape ends with David speculating on how his return to the East Coast will bring about his redemption with Moon and tie the loose end with Edna's child, who he is completely unaware of as Mike in their second encounter.
Paul is found by Moon's henchmen, who hold him at gunpoint, but Mike arrives just on time and kills them. Paul tells Mike that King is his father, which greatly haunts the latter. As the police converge on the scene, the two make good their escape as Paul flees on foot and Michael takes David's car. Shortly afterward, Paul writes a story based on that night, titled "Never Die Alone," which is turned down by a publishing magazine as the agent believes it to be a fictionalized story. David is cremated soon after. His narration focuses on the end of his life and how fate had such a powerful effect on not only his life but also on the lives of Paul, Mike, Edna, Juanita, Moon, and everyone else. Meanwhile, Mike drives through a tunnel and escapes without capture.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
When the unemployed white journalist Paul (David Arquette), who lives in a ghetto, accidentally witness the execution of the Afro-American King David (DMX), he takes the wounded man to the hospital trying to save his life.
Paul finds some cassette tapes in the car, and while listening to them, he becomes aware that David was a hideous drug dealer.When I decided to buy this DVD, I had no information about this movie.
DMX, David Arquette and Michael Ealy have excellent performances, but I found the character of Moon too much clichés of the powerful Afro-American drug lord.
The scene of Mike leaving the tunnel in the end of the movie is another clichés that works perfectly, indicating the possible redemption of this character.
"Never Die Alone" is a surprisingly good, violent and very real movie, which does not spare the characters addicted on drugs, showing the consequence of their vicious and their destiny.
This is the case with "Never Die Alone," an urban crime drama with a plot just loopy enough to keep us interested and just goofy enough to make us believe it.David Arquette plays a white reporter who hangs around in a predominantly black section of the city soaking up the "atmosphere" for articles and books he hopes to write.
One night, he attempts to save the life of a black drug kingpin (played by DMX) by driving the man to the hospital after he's been left for dead in a revenge killing.
Immediately before his death, the man, who goes by the name "King David," bequeaths his car and other earthly possessions to this inner city Good Samaritan.
Thus, as Paul listens to these recordings, a full picture of the kind of man David was soon emerges.The best thing about "Never Die Alone" is that it doesn't flinch from displaying the ugly, harsh realities of its blood-splattered world.
And it does not attempt to sugarcoat "King David," for despite all his comments about redemption and making up for the evil he's done, David is one hell of an amoral bastard who does some pretty horrible things to some truly undeserving people - and the film does not shy away from depicting that reality.Although, on the surface, the film seems like just another in a long line of sordid crime dramas involving crack heads, dope fiends and armed-to-the-teeth ghetto gangstas, "Never Die Alone," perhaps because it is willing to hold nothing back in what it chooses to show us, has a certain ring of truth about it.
Never Die Alone opens up with a scene that full blown gives away a pivotal event in the film, where we see the main character, King David, lying in a casket, eyes closed, hands on his chest.
It's no big secret that he's dead, to me, this movie isn't about the events, but simply about the story and the characters, and that's really all that matters.
I don't think this movie is about the ending, but it's simply about King David and his monstrous nature/personality.
Again, the movie opens up with King David in a casket, obviously dead.
During this beginning scene, we actually start to feel sympathy for King David, as he pleads to Paul to `Not let him die alone.' This line is somewhat sad, but at this point we have no idea what kind of person David is.
Then the real story begins.Through these audio tapes, we realize that David probably never wanted redemption and had no apology for the monstrous acts he's done.
We at first feel sorry for his character, and not want him to die, but as the movie chronicles the last ten years, all of that care and sympathy that we had the character disappears as we see King David for who he really is: A monstrous man who has no compassion for anyone.
He is able define his character in the most monstrous way possible, and even though this character is monstrous and evil in the movie, DMX cloaks this evil vindictive side, and is able to appear normal, and I think this is the dynamic force of the character, he knows he's evil, he knows he's a horrible person, but he acts as if it's all just an everyday activity to ruin people's lives, and DMX pulls this characteristic off amazingly well.
David Arquette plays an aspiring reporter, who, like I mentioned earlier, finds King David's audio diaries and discovers the truth about the man he just met.
Arquette's character isn't onscreen very much, and he only interacts a few times with other people, with the exception of King David.
Before he listens to the cassettes, he obviously doesn't know who King David is, but he probably thinks that David isn't that bad of a person, just like the audience.
Each time this character was onscreen, I sat there wanting the movie to go back to King David's `adventure', mainly because Arquette's character wasn't interesting, and the movie tended to slow down every time they showed him.
The locations are perfectly fitting for the dark and depressing tone that the movie tries to set, and the lighting most of the time is perfect, because it maintains a depressing look that has lots of style.
With DMX's name printed above the title, and with DMX on the front cover with two handguns at hand, most people will think this movie is another mindless action film in the tradition of Exit Wounds and Cradle 2 The Grave.
I thought that it was an action film at first, but I had no idea that it was a serious movie dealing with serious characters and serious situations.
These cool, good-looking black men dress very fine, have lots of money and spend their lives snorting drugs, having sex, killing people and MF'ing everything in sight.
The movie starts with King David in a casket.Then he starts telling us about his life.
Interestingly, Paul was living the life of a black man, while Nancy seemed to have rejected her culture (I'm basing this on one scene, but we never got to know her) and disapproved of his living in that world, but Paul felt he had to in order to write what he wanted.Paul finds out from a hospital worker that David had rewarded him by leaving him everything--lots of cash, jewelry, and a nice car.
DMX truly shows the King as an evil and god-awful person and by the end of the movie, it is quite satisfying to connect it to the beginning.
Interesting attempt to adapt a Donald Goines novel for the big screen, Never Die Alone is reminiscent of early blaxploitation classics like BLACK CAESAR, with both the pluses and minuses that entails.DMX stars as drug dealer King David.
The first movie, which lasts for the first half-hour or so, is an excellent, gritty crime drama, as good as anything I've seen recently on the big screen.
The third one deals with David Arquette, an aspiring writer who fetishizes the gangster lifestyle exemplified by King.These three movies sit awkwardly together.
This movie surprised me in many ways starting from King David ( played by DMX) King is not the type of character people will fall for like Scarface who was an Anti-hero with remorse.
David arquette might seem overshadowed by the other actors,but he also plays an important part of this movie.
Overall, I think this is one of the best films I've seen and for those who like gangster movies, you won't be disappointed..
DMX plays King David a drug king pin that has came back home to set things strait.
He had such a short life and not enough time to set things right like he planned.Overall, it was a good film!
Maybe in the next movie King- David'sson should be living on his life as well as his Father's.
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.****.
He definitely brings a strong visual integrity to Never Die Alone.DMX turns in a believable performance as King David a New York drug dealer who legs it to LA when he steals his bosses stash.
Before the night is over Arquette pieces together his life and an awful past full of heinous crimes is unleashed, but it's not over yet and Arquette becomes marked for death by King David's still very angry boss.In a mere 88 minutes Never Die Alone tells an intriguing story in non-chronological order and sets up a remarkable array of complexly interwoven characters.
But this is definitely a movie for fans of (the initially unrecognisable) DMX, just don't expect one of those nice but bad characters he played in Exit Wounds or Cradle 2 the Grave.
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 know very little about DMX, his life, his career, but I couldn't help but wonder where the character began and he ended.
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.
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.
DMX's character, King David is one of the few movie character's besides, Al Pacino's Tony Montana, that actually portrays how a man with a gangster mentality is, with no sugar coating.
King David is not a gangster with a heart of gold, but a man who is in a life style where he has to be a wolf in order to survive.
King David is not a character to fall for, unlike Tony Montana in "Scarface".
David is one of the most evil characters in film history and DMX brings the evil out.
DMX plays King David a man who returns after 10 years, only to die.
When I first rented this movie, I was expecting some good action scenes mixed with a decent story and a great soundtrack...I was disappointed on ALL accounts.
The music chosen was Jazz, good for the slums of New York I guess, but in a DMX film you would have expected him to do at LEAST one song for it (if they did, it might have been when I fell asleep.) As for the action scenes, where are they?
"King" David(DMX, who's...
King David has only returned to his home for a short time when his attempts to even up with crime boss Moon sees him killed.
Gomez-Preston is good as Juanita  delivering a harrowing character really well.Never Die Alone is the story of a cruel and callous man who lived in crime and died because of it.
Actually I had never even heard of this movie before I watched it.It stars DMX as a drug dealer named "King David" and the movie starts out with him in a coffin.
The film is based on the novel by Donald Goines(one of my favorite authors) and stars DMX(Belly, Exit Wounds), Michael Ealy(Barbershop series) and David Arquette(Scream series) with very good direction by Ernest R.
I'll start by saying that Bones really could've been a good movie but even Dickerson's hard work didn't pay off in the lackluster horror film but he comes back with a bang with the uncompromising Never Die Alone.
DMX, who also served as producer, turns in a great performance as King David an introverted, callous drug dealer who is killed when he returns to his hometown after burning many of his bridges - very reminiscent to Belly's Tommy Buns, however you see the lives that he's destroyed in this movie.
David Arquette plays a jewish journalist caught in the middle of a turf war after witnessing King David get killed on a city strip - his performance as the naive writer isn't too shabby neither but Michael Ealy, the true hero of the movie, was the one who shined the brightest alongside DMX.
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.
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.
What's monstrous is when he decides to give them a little "test." DMX, as King David, is hard and cold.
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.
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.
By the end, the movie asks Paul, the journalist, and even the viewer, do you think King David really deserved to die?.
King David is a despicable sociopath, and watching him ruin the lives of everyone else in the movie is not an easy thing.It's a powerful story, but there are some problems.
Well, in some ways it is – there are a ton of bloody shoot-outs and it partly follows the classic revenge drama formula – but in other ways, NEVER DIE ALONE surprises, exploring DMX's character in some detail and taking a downbeat look at the life of a drug dealer.
DMX takes a role a little heavier than he's used to, and he's very good in the part, a really hateful character that you can nevertheless understand.
The movie begins with King David's death (literally the first image of DMXs character, King David, is when hes already in a coffin).
But, there is much more to this film then King david's life since the white writer has problems of his own and Mike, a lowly thug whos vengeance on David comes with a price, is trying to kill before being killed himself.
Even though King David is the movies focus, the more interesting character is Mike, King david's assasin.
However, he does have his own problems and ends up not feeling sorry for King David after listening to the tapes.
However, the big thing on his mind are the King David's tapes and making a story out of them.
The film is symblically ironic since King David's life might have appeared to be glamourous but realy, it was an ugly life to live, as is Mike's, and the white writer got cuaght up in the ugly life of drugs and murder.SPOILER:  This movie also hgas a message about vengeance.
The story picks up because when he was killed a reporter( David Arquette) was at the scene and tried to help him.