James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young

I bought this movie because I love James Dean and think Casper Van Dien is cool too. When I watched this movie, I was disappointed that it was more of a cheesy fictional story that depicted Dean as a real jerk. Yes some of those things happened but I felt that Casper wasn't James Dean, that he was some misc. character. I hated Casper's acting. What was up with the eyebrows?! James Dean never acted like that. This movie is truely a disgrace to the James Dean legacy. If you guys really want to watch an awesomely acted James Dean recreation movie, watch James Dean starring James Franco. Its the best one I've seen next to the real thing.

James Dean: Race With Destiny (a.k.a James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young) is a terrible movie that disgraces a screen legend. The production values are painfully low, and coupled with the shoddy acting, the resulting feel is that you're watching a soap opera. And a bad one, at that.

Why anyone though Casper Van Dien could play James Dean evades me. He was fine in "Sleepy Hollow," and other films, but this is clearly not a role for him. To make matters worse, his performance is terrible. The film portrays Dean as a rude buffoon. Although I have seen "Rebel Without A Cause," I don't know much about Dean himself, but I've often heard he was actually quite shy. If this is in fact the case, the film severely misrepresents him.

The script is also poor, complete with ridiculous stereotypes such as Pier Angeli's mother saying "bonjourno," and "gratzi" every 25 seconds, as though the viewer needs to be reassured that she's Italian. There are also visual blunders. In the opening sequence, Dean is in the middle of a race, and happens to be sporting a modern racing helmet, instead of a 1950s one. Things like that might have been excusable if the overall production was better, but it isn't.

Instead of suffering through this terrible affair, check out "James Dean," starring James Franco. That film is great in its own right, but it's downright genius compared to this waste of time.

I just saw James Dean: Live fast Die young, and somewhat (if not very) dissapointed of the film. I'm not an actor but I watch movies, especially classic movies, religiously. Putting Casper Van Dien as Jimmy Dean in this picture is a sin, he did a very dissapointing job portraying Dean. My most dissapointment goes for the team that made this film. Back in those days smoking was COOL! And Van Dien couldn't even drag a cigarette. The Lighting is biased, did they try to make look like an old movie, or what? The same goes to the motorcycle- riding scene. But it is good to see that somebody finally decide to make a movie about America's Legend. But I am sorry that I bought this DVD instead of renting it... =) Peace to all of you

I bought this movie because I have enjoyed the few films that Casper Van Dien has made. He does a credible job of portraying James Dean. Details of his Hollywood life came out that I had not known at the time of Dean's life (i.e. his relationships with Pier Angeli and Ursula Andress). What proved most discouraging were the "terrible" Italian accents (particularly from an accomplished actress like Diane Ladd) and from the Mitchum girl. I also found the background music uneven and sometimes so loud the dialog was muted. What might have been a good film came off as pretty amateurish.

I really love James Dean, but I really truly hated this movie. It was a terrible portrayal on his behalf. James Dean was really really shy in real life, and the only way we saw that was when we saw him talk about racing when he was filming his shoot on the cowboy movie. Overall I thought this was a terrible portrayal on Dean himself and a disgrace to him. If you want to do a realistic story, do it right please.