Fear City Reviews

Back in the 90's, I was a huge fan of Abel Ferrara's work so I was really eager to watch this flick. Indeed, Ferrara has never been an easy director but I always found his movies really mesmerizing. However, all the movies he directed during the last decade were more alienating than fascinating to watch, unfortunately. Anyway, this is one of his oldest movies I have seen so far and it seems that it was his first mainstream feature. Even though it was nothing groundbreaking, I above all liked the way he mixed his own dark vision and the rather generic thriller plot. I also enjoyed how sleazy the whole thing was with characters such as strippers, strip club owners, shady cops and a martial-arts expert serial killer. There was also a decent cast (Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Melanie Griffith) and they did a pretty good job, even though it was not as intense as what Harvey Keitel displayed in 'Bad Lieutenant' which is easily Ferrara's best movie. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it still remains a decent flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Abel Ferrara's work.