Playlist: The Avon Barksdale Story

Yes, that Avon Barksdale.

I was excited when I heard about this since I'm still riding the high of recently finishing HBO's brilliant series, "The Wire." For those not in the know, Avon Barksdale was the main antagonist for much of the series, a Baltimore drug kingpin played by Wood Harris (who has the longest fingers in Hollywood. Seriously, almost distracting at times). The show was created by David Simon and based on his experiences as a crime reporter in the city. Avon was a composite of a few different criminals, including his namesake and the subject of this film, the real Nathan Avon Barksdale.

Don't get the wrong idea--this is not affiliated with the series in any way, despite the shrewd subtitle, "Legends of the Unwired". What it is is a self-billed docudrama: half interview with the now-paroled Barksdale, half amateurish reenactments to pad the time. It's low-budget and cheesy, but worse than that, boring. Barksdale isn't allowed to discuss the good stuff because, as he explains, there's no statute of limitations on murder. Yes, he's a murderer, a fact hard to overlook despite the filmmakers' attempts to glorify him as some sort of street legend. He does have an interesting story worthy of a real documentary, including having a leg amputated at a young age and getting shot countless times--getting shot countless times point blank in the head. Really.

Some points of interest to fans of "The Wire": Wood Harris conducts the interview with Barksdale, though he is given very little screen time (he does have on a cool hat). They do interview the "real" Bunk and mention the "real" Proposition Joe. And allude to a future film about Marlow Bates, one of the inspirations for Marlo Stanfield, one of the scariest bad guys in TV history.