Alphabet City

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Alphabet City

R

1984

1h 25m

Crime

Drama

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2 Reviews

30%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Although Johnny (Vincent Spano) has yet to hit his 20s, he has already made quite a name for himself as a mob-employed New York City drug pusher. Johnny and his pal Lippy (Michael Winslow) are ordered by their boss to pull off an arson job, but the upstart dealer gets second thoughts when he realizes that the building he's been told to burn down is that of his own mother and sister. He then tries to stop the crime and save his family, incurring the wrath of the mob in the process.

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Maybe in another movie these actors could have made their characters come alive. In Alphabet City, everything is smothered in the concept.

Rated: 1/4

Apr 30, 2019

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a sluggish and terminally underwhelming disaster that strikes all the wrong notes right from the get-go...

Rated: 1/4

Oct 27, 2024

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Audience Member

Totally blindsided by how awesome this was! It's a smaller, lower budget crime flick, but what it lacks in spectacle, it more than makes up for in style. The design, the music, the cinematography... all aces!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/21

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ashley h

Alphabet City is a decent film. It is about a New York City drug dealer who decides to get out of the business, but has to flee from mobsters. Vincent Spano and Michael Winslow give good performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. Amos Poe did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture because of the drama and thrills.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

suffers from some bad acting but as far as its Photography and atmosphere it's pretty f****** good. New York in the 80's fascinates me.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

A watchable tale of the streets, though I wasn't ever fully drawn into it - not sure why, it just didn't grab me the way I sort of expected it to. I did enjoy the sketchy '80s era NYC settings though, so that's a definite selling point. Rental?

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

i don't care want people say this movie is independent gold its stylish it has good music totally under rated five stars

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

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Audience Member

A very generic genre exercise about a criminal hood who tries to go straight in order to protect his wife & child. It was obviously made a small budget back in '84, and it shows, but perhaps the only thing redeeming about the movie is it's stylishly color-fueled, late-night NYC neon-grunge cinematography by Oliver Wood (who would later go on to do Miami Vice and the Jason Bourne series). The flick doesn't pack the same kind of comic punch that Walter Hill's "Streets of Fire" possessed, which would only be released a few weeks later. Just stick with "Streets of Fire".

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

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Amos Poe

Director

Vincent Spano

Johnny

Kate Vernon

Angie

Michael Winslow

Lippy

Jami Gertz

Sophia

Zohra Lampert

Mama

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Synopsis

Although Johnny (Vincent Spano) has yet to hit his 20s, he has already made quite a name for himself as a mob-employed New York City drug pusher. Johnny and his pal Lippy (Michael Winslow) are ordered by their boss to pull off an arson job, but the upstart dealer gets second thoughts when he realizes that the building he's been told to burn down is that of his own mother and sister. He then tries to stop the crime and save his family, incurring the wrath of the mob in the process.

Director: Amos Poe
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg
Screenwriter: Amos Poe, Gregory K. Heller
Production Co: Atlantic Releasing Corporation
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 4, 1984, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2020
Runtime: 1h 25m

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