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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 |
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Find Me Guilty
A Movie Review |
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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!!! |
