Mediocre movie. I don't really know what is the fuss with Vin Diesel's performance. I think he was good for the role, but come on, he played himself. That's all.
I am livid with the representation of gays in the movie. Terrible. The first Shipwreck 0. So far, this is the movie with the worst representation of gays on this blog, of all my gay movie reviews.
Here, Vin Diesel plays a small time gangster who is asked by the district attorney's office to rat on his gangster buddies. He doesn't rat and as a result he spends 2 hours and 20 minutes of our time in a courtroom drama. He is his own lawyer. It felt long.
I must confess I was already a little riled up by Vin Diesel's behavior in his last Details' interview (page 132 in the magazine, middle of third column). The Details interview reminds us of a recent confrontation Diesel had regarding his sexuality. He doesn't deny the gay rumur, but here is his reaction when he was asked if he was gay: "I was like, 'How could you say that? Why would you say that?'' says Diesel." All mad at the reporter who asked whether he was gay. Not nice, right? Like it is a bad thing.
Now to the movie. The movie had so many homophobic slurs and scenes that it was difficult to keep track. It appears the script replaced all the "commas" with the word "cocksucker." The first time it is used by Diesel to refer to a lawyer he doesn't like anymore (and he then decides to represent himself, 'cause he's so smart). Then it's used by Linus Roache, who plays the lead district attorney. Then by the mob guys. Everyone jumps in, it's amazing.
Linus Roache tells Diesel that if he doesn't cooperate, the only love he'll get is dick in prison. All bad.
The Italian gangsters call an Italian artist a faggot, and claim the artist was fucked by one of the gangsters' grandfathers. There's so much of it. You wouldn't believe.
In one of the worst scenes, Vin Diesel is cross examining this witness and Diesel suggests that the reason Diesel had not been nice to the witness in the past is because the witness is a cocksucker who was caught trying to suck Vin Diesel's cock and Vin Diesel threw him out of the house. In that scene, Vin Diesel offers the witness a lollipop, a pink lollipop. The judge pretty much lets everything happen. Bad. Really bad. Everyone laughs in the courtroom.
The only good acting scene in the movie was delivered by Annabella Sciorra.
She is Vin Diesel's wife in the movie. Her appearance is brief but superb. Unfortunately, her character was not spared of homophobic slurs. When asked if she had been submitted to search in order to visit her husband in prison, she says she was searched, but at least it was by a female police, or what she thought could have been female. All bad.
Nothing good is thrown for the gays. No crumbs here. Shame on the writers (Sidney Lumet and T.J. Mancini) for letting that much homophobia in a movie. Italians and women should also feel degraded by the movie.
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