The Basketball Diaries
by Scott Kalvert
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: James Madio, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol, Patrick McGawDirector: Scott Kalvert
Brand: Team Marketing
Producer: Chris Blackwell
Producer: Dan Genetti
Producer: John Bard Manulis
Producer: Kathie Hersch
Producer: Liz Heller
Writer: Bryan Goluboff
Writer: Jim Carroll
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
Product features:
- Classic DVD
- Exclusive interviews, highlights, and behind the scenes coverage
- DVD's main menu allow you to jump directly to the action
- Presented in full-screen digital video
Movie Reviews of The Basketball Diaries
Movie Review: This 'bomb' didn't explode
Summary: 1 Stars
This just can't be me alone! I could not finish this disjointed, boring, bad acting mistake called a movie. I like Leo, but bought it for Mark Walberg. I either didn't recognized him or he didn't make the first half of this waste of film and my time. Skip this one. Watch Leo in "Titanic" or "Blood Diamonds" or Mark in "Shooter" or "Planet of the Apes". These in my humble opinion are good films and should be seen. I would rather try to stomach a plate of brussel sprouts than start this film over.
Summary of The Basketball Diaries
Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an unhealthy appetite for heroin -- all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity.The pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jim Carroll, the poet and musician who spent much of his adolescence addicted to heroin and shooting hoops with fellow Catholic high school kids. As a biography, the film doesn't amount to more than the sum of its gritty scenes of smack use, violence, perversions (poor Bruno Kirby plays a lecherous coach who comes on to young Jim), and the usual scream-and-puke dramas that go along with a cold-turkey session. Director Scott Kalvert doesn't seem to realize that most people don't know who Carroll is and therefore can't possibly understand why they should care about his gutterball youth. DiCaprio, having nowhere to go with his performance but maintain Carroll's tailspin, is boring and redundant. Some kind of allusion to the literary and rock & roll life that follows the mess we're watching might have been helpful. --Tom Keogh
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