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Movies / On DVD / Never Die Alone
Never Die Alone

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Never Die Alone (2004)

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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.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence, drug use, sexuality and language

Runtime: 89 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Mar 26, 2004 Wide

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

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Release:

Jul 13, 2004

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Reviews for Never Die Alone

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61 - 80 (sorted by date)
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Half of this film is so dark and grainy it looks like the Paris Hilton sex video.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
03/25/04
Fred Topel
Fred Topel
About.com

Loses all credibility every time Arquette appears on screen.

Full Review Source: Film Blather | comment Comment
03/25/04
Eugene Novikov
Eugene Novikov
Film Blather

Moody gangster-morality tale has an old-fashioned, mean-streets swagger and a charismatic lead in rapper DMX.

Full Review Source: Netflix | comment Comment
03/25/04
James Rocchi
James Rocchi
Netflix

DMX isn't up to the acting needed to play an epic anti-hero, but then director/ex-cinematographer Ernest Dickerson never makes Never very epic on any level.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
03/25/04
Mike Clark
Mike Clark
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Dickerson's seductive realization and DMX's chillingly detached performance give this subpar variation on culturally apocalyptic themes an amoral plausibility.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
03/25/04
Duane Dudek
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sure, the bends in logic are nutty, and some of the dialogue is so outrageously street that it's laughable, but the larger-than-life star works it with everything he's got. It's a decent deal.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
03/25/04
E! Online

Never Die Alone is soft and squishy, lacking tension and suspense, not to mention logic.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
03/25/04
Randy Cordova
Randy Cordova
Arizona Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

DMX thinks he's playing a macho street stud when he's more like Ted Bundy in a black leather jacket.

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
03/25/04
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

An incredibly violent and technically shoddy but undeniably absorbing black gangster movie.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
03/25/04
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
03/25/04
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

If you cut the expletives from Never Die Alone, it's unlikely that this updated blaxploitation flick would run more than 15 minutes.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
03/25/04
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Los Angeles Times

A nasty piece of work that doesn't seem to have met a cliche it didn't like.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
03/25/04
Gary Dowell
Gary Dowell
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This throwback to the outmoded blaxploitation genre is skillfully filmed by Dickerson, but has little else to offer besides cheap, violent thrills.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
03/25/04
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

DMX is the perfect actor for this stylized and often satisfying film adaptation of Donald Goines's novel.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
03/25/04
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A hackneyed tale of vengeance set in the 'hood, teeming with stock characters, slo-mo gunplay, and rampant misogyny.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
03/25/04
Steven Rea
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer

It deserves some credit for its ambitions. But those ambitions tip it over into pretentious melodrama that only emphasizes how far short of its aspirations it falls.

Full Review Source: Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies | comment Comment
03/25/04
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

You'll need all the body armor you can muster for Ernest Dickerson's bruising film noir, which works up more momentum and urgency in any one of its 82 minutes than most crime dramas do in their entirety.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
03/25/04
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Arquette does what he can with his pitiful character. But the longer Paul drifts, the longer we find it hard to believe that he's still alive. In fact, we're kind of sorry he's still alive. The movie would be much better without him.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
03/25/04
Jeff Strickler
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune

An electrifying modern-dress noir.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
03/25/04
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

Working from a 1974 novel by Donald Goines, the director, Ernest Dickerson, proves he's the rare filmmaker who can show the attraction -- and degradation -- of the criminal life without exploiting it.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
03/25/04
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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