Never Die Alone

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Never Die Alone ★★½ 2004 (R)

King David (DMX) is a drug dealer and a vicious dude to boot, and the opening scene shows him paying the price for his deeds as he is fatally stabbed. This is where Paul (Arquette), a struggling writer desperate for a story to tell, comes in. When King David passes on he gives Paul all of his possessions, including a stack of audiotapes he'd made detailing the events of his wretched life (which provide the means for the at-times tedious narrative), but Paul doesn't realize how dangerous a predicament this really is. Director Dickerson presents powerful images and purposefully avoids garnering sympathy for King David. DMX is engrossing as the suave seducer/violent hoodlum. Based on the 1974 novel by ex-convict Donald Goines. 88m/C DVD, UMD . US DMX, Michael Ealy, Antwon Tanner, David Arquette, Clifton Powell, Tommy (Tiny) Lister, Aisha Tyler, Michele Shay, Reagan Gomez-Preston, Damion Poitier, Jennifer Sky, Drew Sidora; D: Ernest R. Dickerson; W: James Gibson; C: Matthew Libatique; M: DMX, George Duke.