Diamonds

This road movie deals about Harry(Kirk Douglas), an old retired boxer affected by a stroke. He claims to have a fortune in diamonds hidden in location of Reno into house a mobster(James Russo). Harry along with his estranged son(Dan Aykroyd)and grandson(Corbin)going on a road trip toward Nevada to retrieve it. Throughout travel enjoy various adventures and feeling moments. Meanwhile, they stop in a brothel with a veteran madame(Lauren Bacall) and attractive prostitutes (Jenny McCarthy).

This is an independent road movie developing an agreeable father-son-grandson relationship with intimate bonding moments. Casting is justly excellent. Kirk Douglas is magnificent,in spite of his real stroke, as one-time boxing champion .He appears in a television images about his film titled ¨Champion¨(1949,Mark Robson)and is reunited with Lauren Bacall with whom he played in ¨Young man with a horn¨(1950,Michael Curtiz¨. Appears uncredited in a special cameo, John Landis as a gambler. Appropriate cinematography and sensible music score by Joel Goldsmith( Jerry Goldsmisth's son). The motion picture is professionally directed by John Asher. He's usually actor(CSY, NavyCSI) and director TV and occasionally director for his wife, Jenny McCarthy(Dirty love, Thank heaven), here lively playing a whore. Rating : Acceptable and entertaining.

I doubt this movie would ever have been made but for Kirk Douglas. Its plot (generation gap and how to overcome it) has been told hundreds of times - and much better, too. The jokes are usually signalled with a red flag, the character-"development" is hardly in need of a soothsayer, nor are the plot "twists". Add the rather artificial sentimentality and you've got stuff that wouldn't even make it to TV. Thus said - I'd advise anyone strongly to watch "Diamonds". A contradiction? Yes, but the contradictory factor is simply: Sir Kirk. His presence, his strength to carry a film or his brilliance as an actor haven't diminished one bit since his stroke. Neither have his courage and his fighting spirit. Most actors his age would have given up, being bereft of their most important tool - speech. Kirk Douglas thought otherwise, and proved in "Diamonds" that he is still there and going strong. Though Dan Aykroyd and Corbin Allred do their parts credit, the only one to match Douglas' powerhouse performance is another screen-legend: Lauren Bacall. Their (all too brief) sequences bristle with chemistry and the competence of more than half a century in the business. In the end, "Diamonds" is simply proof that Kirk Douglas still can (and always will) overcome mediocre to bad material - and shine. That alone is reason enough to see "Diamonds".

If you and your special one want to sit down on the couch and watch a movie just for the hell of it, pull up the popcorn and watch this one! All the acting is great, and the story-line is more meaningful than most of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood! It's nice to see that stuff like this is getting made. Kirk Douglas is an incredible actor, and even with the stroke, he works out nicely in his role.

"Diamonds" was a very good movie. I initially rented it because a former teen crush (Jenny McCarthy) of mine had a starring role in it. As I watched the movie I began to see that there was a lot more substance to it than just being a flick with a former Playboy playmate in it. It was well worth the money and it most certainly was one of the best I have seen to date. Go see it. It was Kirk Douglas's best (and last) movie in my opinion.

The scenes between Dan Aykroyd and Kirk Douglas where they are working through Dan's disappointment that Kirk was not a better father are fantastic! Every man who has ever been disappointed in his father should watch the old post stroke Kirk Douglas telling his son "I never kicked you in the ass, and I'm proud of that. My father beat me and I didn't beat you and that was a great thing." Maybe the definition of growing up is learning that your parents were children once, and they were hurt and disappointed and did not get enough from their parents, and that we are just all in this together, trying to find love. Maybe I am not a grown up until I have cried for the pain and disappointments my own mother and father have had in their lives, even though they also disappointed me.

It is just lovely to know that even in a movie I never heard of, that never really made it, I can find such moments of genuine humanity.