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The trailer for Sidney Lumet's new movie, starring Vin Diesel (?!) is online:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independe ... y/trailer/

Based on the true story of Giacomo “Jackie Deeâ€

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Sidney Lumet's new movie, starring Vin Diesel

[Punches own face]

These are the End Times.

They showed clips of Lumet working with Vin Diesel at the Oscars last year during the Lumet monage, but I had forgotten about that until now. How long this has been in post-production?

Ron Silver is in the movie? Sweet news.

I think Joe Pesci would've been far beter than Vin Diesel, but he is kind of old. Anyway, where Diesel is concerned, I thought he did pretty well in "Saving Private Ryan". Frankly, I think he's an actor whose casting choices have simply been off-the-wall terrible. He might be talented he just hasn't shown it all yet.

che-etienne wrote:I think Joe Pesci would've been far beter than Vin Diesel, but he is kind of old. Anyway, where Diesel is concerned, I thought he did pretty well in "Saving Private Ryan". Frankly, I think he's an actor whose casting choices have simply been off-the-wall terrible. He might be talented he just hasn't shown it all yet.

Diesel's best film is still Pitch Black and he really hasn't done anything since to capitalize on the promise he showed in that one. I'm hoping that Lumet's influence will draw a good performance out of the guy. We shall see.

The Village Voice has a review up: http://villagevoice.com/film/0611,kenig ... 36,20.html

Yikes.

Dylan wrote:They showed clips of Lumet working with Vin Diesel at the Oscars last year during the Lumet monage, but I had forgotten about that until now. How long this has been in post-production?

It's been in the can for nearly a year now, if that tells you anything.

According to Stephen Holden, it's Sidney Lumet at "the top of his game"

I finally got a chance to see this and found it quite enjoyable, actually.

It is definitely Vin Diesel's best performance to date (not hard, I know). Working with a consummate pro and cinematic legend like Lumet clearly forced Diesel to step up his game and not phone this one in. He's got the swagger and bravado of a mobster down cold (basically, the stuff you see in the trailers). Beyond that, I also felt that Diesel started to show signs of actually developing some kind of range early on when he hesitantly informs the judge that he'll be defending himself. He ends up delivering a speech to the jury that is, at times, earnest, funny and even righteous. It's the most words Diesel's had to string together in a long time and, I have to say, he pulls it off. He also actually displays some dramatic chops, like in the scene where his ex-wife (played by Annabella Sciorra) visits him in jail and she unloads all of her gripes and frustrations that she has about him. Instead of exploding in anger as you would expect, Diesel just stands there and takes it.

The film is pretty lightweight but enjoyable to watch and I sure hope this a sign of things to come for Diesel instead of churning out yet another forgettable action film. Altho, I can see him maybe going back and forth doing those mindless studio films so that he can afford to do something more substantial.

Actually, it was a little flat for me.

While a competent, and as they say, solid performance from Diesel, it was too claustophobic and static in the mostly closed court room setting...especially when he goes into his "I'm not a gangster, I'm a gagster" thing...it makes the staleness of it more obvious to me.

It kind of just sputtered like a spent balloon and the energy of the film went with it.

Compared to "Prince of the City" this is small potatos for Lumet who, face it, has seen and dealt with better material.

Let's hope he has another chance to give us that old sparkle !

filmfan wrote:Compared to "Prince of the City" this is small potatos for Lumet who, face it, has seen and dealt with better material.

Let's hope he has another chance to give us that old sparkle !

Agreed. Yeah, it certainly wasn't vintage Lumet that's for sure but I felt that it was an entertaining time waster. Apparently, he's hard at work on another film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead with Albert Finney, Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei.