Diamonds (1999)

Buy This Item Diamonds (1999) by Miramax Films  Available from Amazon  $9.99  on 11-2-2008     In an effort to bond with his son, Lance (Dan Aykroyd) agrees to help his father, Harry (Kirk Douglas), a former boxer now hampered by a stroke (as Douglas is in real life), hunt down some diamonds he was given by a crooked boxing promoter but had to hide for reasons that don't exactly make sense. The three generations drive to Reno in a convertible (driving with the top down in winter, for some reason), where they win at gambling and decide to blow the money at a nearby whorehouse, where Lauren Bacall is the madam and Jenny McCarthy is one of the "girls." Lessons are learned, honor is regained. Every clichéd scene of <I>Diamonds</I> is written and played in such broad strokes (er, so to speak) that it's impossible to really connect with the characters; they don't have enough substance that you can grasp them as people. It's particularly difficult to watch Kirk Douglas--an actor who's spent his life playing thorny, galvanizing characters--being mined for cheap, easy sentiment. Get one of his older movies instead; get <I>Paths of Glory</I> or <I>Out of the Past</I> or <I>Gunfight at the O.K. Corral</I> or <I>Spartacus</I> or even <I>20,000 Leagues Under the Sea</I>, any one of which is a thousand times the movie <I>Diamonds</I> is. <I>--Bret Fetzer</I> Reader Reviews This is not a story about diamonds but a beautiful story about the father and son's bonding. It begins with the old dad played by Kirk Douglas, who always brags about having a dozen of magic diamonds hidding somewhere, worth millions of dollars. None of his children believes him. Until someday, his grandson listens and excites about it. He drags his dad (played by Dan Aykroyd) to help his grandfather to find those diamonds. Adventure begins. Throughout the journey, they not only fix up but also strengthen their father-and-son relationship all together. And eventually, they find the magic diamonds but with a twist --- a $5 cubic zirconia necklace and a deck of card printed with grandma's picture. Yet, at the end of the film, there's another twist. Overall, this is a very good movie. It will make you laugh abit and cry abit. Just the DVD is lacking of some extra features, which only comes with closed captions, bios, and a bonus material "The Life and Times of Kirk Douglas". *** Otto Yuen's DVD Special Rating for Diamonds *** 1. Film Rewatchability: MEDIUM 2. DVD Featurability: WEAK 3. Picture Quality: VERY GOOD 4. Sound Quality: VERY GOOD (Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 4-Nov-2004)

Diamonds (1999) Available from Amazon Price: $9.99 Updated on 11-2-2008.

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