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Find Me Guilty
Movie Stats & Links

Starring: Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Ron Silver, Alex Rocco, Annabella Sciorra
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: OneRace Films
Web Site: www.findmeguilty.com
Kiddie Movie: They'd be bored.
Date Movie: It's a nice drama/comedy.  She might have fun.
Gratuitous Sex: Talk and Annabella Sciorra has a nice dress with nice cleavage, but that's about it.
Gratuitous Violence: Jackie Dee gets shot.  Well, more shot at, but not killed.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: Lots of laughs in the courtroom that really piss off the prosecutor.
Memorable Scene: I loved the scene with Jackie Dee and his wife, for obvious reasons.
Memorable Quote: Too many to list.
Directed By: Sidney Lumet
Produced By: Bob Yari, Robert Greenhut, George Vitetzakis, T.J. Mancini, Bob Degrino

Find Me Guilty
A Movie Review

MPAA Rated - R

It's 2:05 Long

A Review by
The Dude on the Right
Vin Diesel was very close to locking himself into the role of action hero, or even kid’s film hero, making us forget some of his earlier decent acting choices (yes, he was in "Saving Private Ryan" for your memory recollection). Then along comes "Find Me Guilty," and as much as I liked Vin as Xander Cage in "xXx," and did find him kinda funny in "The Pacifier," for this role he kinda takes the perceived notion of him being a dumb action hero and turns it into a great perception as the seeming not-so-bright role as Giacomo "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio in the movie "Find Me Guilty." Vin, though, needs to be a better interview because after I saw his interview on David Letterman last week I almost decided not to see this movie. I don’t know if he was thrown by David’s questions, or just wanted to sound elusive. In any case, the interview was a train-wreck: The movie, not so much.

Anyway, for "Find Me Guilty" we get Vin Diesel in a movie from one of the most highly regarded Directors, Sidney Lumet. It’s a story of the famous Lucchese family trial in New Jersey back from the mid-1980’s where the government had a RICO case with some 20 defendants, lots of lawyers, and I’ll bet a batch of about 20 jurors who didn’t want to see their lives to go down in history in a trial that took almost two years. So Vin plays Jackie Dee, kinda sore at the entire lawyer profession since they’ve pretty much failed him all his life (granted, his life was a life of crime, but hey, let it go). For the trial, much to the dismay of those involved, namely the entire family, Jackie Dee represents himself, which could spell doom for all of them. The thing is, it mostly seems to spell doom for the prosecutors because everyone seems to underestimate the likeability factor, as well as the common sense factor, of Jackie Dee.

As the trial goes on we get Jackie Dee cracking jokes as he cross-examines witnesses, get the judge and the prosecutor a lot perturbed at him, but Vin does a great job in showing that even though Jackie Dee isn’t highly educated, he realizes the life he has led and won’t do anything to deliberately rat out those he loves.

The key to this movie is really the case, and they picked fabulous characters for everyone, and yes, even Vin Diesel as Jackie Dee. Ron Silver was great as Judge Finestein, Peter Linklage as one of the other attorneys, Peter Dinklage, who kinda looks out for Jackie Dee, making sure he doesn’t do any phenomenal screw-ups, but other than Vin, my favorite performance was by Annabella Sciorra, in a brief scene as Jackie Dee’s wife, Bella.

The movie is based on the actual testimony from the trial, with some other things thrown in for good measure, and in the history of trial movies, it’s a really good one. Jackie Dee, and sure, he’s a criminal, but he’s a lovable criminal. Most people love him, and Vin does a great job at showing this. You get some laughs, you get some seriousness, and yes, even though the movie is about a crime family, and I won’t give away the verdict, you either already know it and can find out for yourself before the movie if you really want to, you can see how the government can, at times, underestimate the simplest of things.

I will say this, though, and it doesn’t have to do with the entertainment factor of the movie, but you know what keeps making me bummed lately? Of course you don’t, so I’m going to tell you. It’s watching a movie that pretty much entertained me, based on the life/story, or in the case of "Find Me Guilty" a trial, but I just get sad when I see "… died during the filming of this movie." Herb Brooks died before the movie "Miracle" was released, the same with Ray Charles and Johnny Cash for their respective biopics. I’m watching "Find Me Guilty," hoping that Jackie Dee didn’t pass away before the movie was completed but sadly, he did. For all of those movies, it is said that those involved seemed to be liking the way the movie was going, liked who was playing their role, but from what I have read/seen, none have them have been able to see (or hear/feel) the finished project and really give their honest opinion. I hope Jackie Dee saw a lot of Vin’s daily’s, and gave him his stamp of approval, because I think Vin did a great job.

This review is running long, so let’s just wrap it up with 4 stars out of 5. It’s not a total drama, it’s not a total comedy, and sure, it’s about a supposed crime family who, well, are a family. I was entertained and have a newfound appreciation for Vin Desil as an actor.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

 

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