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Man Apart Fails to Stand Out
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Man Apart Fails to Stand Out
I was running late to my preview screening of A Man Apart the other
night, and I was freaking out. You see, I am almost never late. I have this
thing about punctuality. When I say I'm going to be somewhere, I am there. And
I knew that the new Vin Diesel movie was a big deal. Ever since the Hollywood
studios got together and decided that this musclehead with the NASCAR name and
World Wrestling Federation body would be the "next big thing," a wave
of minor excitement has gripped the film community each time another of his
movies hits theaters.
I was late for the Vinster!
But then, five or six miles from the theater with about 15 minutes to go, a
strange calm came over me. Suddenly, the Baltimore rush-hour traffic around
me started to blur away, and I eased off of the gas pedal. The realization suddenly
hit me. "Even if I'm late," I said to myself, "it's all good.
I've seen the trailer!"
Seriously, have you seen the trailer for A Man Apart? I've had to sit
through it about a half-dozen times now. On first viewing, it's kind of cool.
On sixth viewing, it's about as exciting as those videos they play on airlines
to instruct you how to put on the oxygen masks and not knock over old people
and little girls on your way out of the plane in the event of a water landing.
The trailer not only makes the movie look like a souped-up, urban retread of
Death Wish, Hard to Kill, Licence to Kill, Diesel to
Kill, and every other movie revenge fantasy, it also appeared to give away
... NEARLY THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN' PLOT! Ahem, cough.
As I've stated before, I try and take great pains to shield my readers from
plot spoilers. I give away the basic set-up for each film, but I really do my
best to avoid detailing specific stuff that happens in movies ... especially
in their last half-hours. I've seen enough trailers in my life to know that
the trailer for A Man Apart basically shows you the structure of the
film from start to finish. It's like a mini version of the flick. So even if
I missed the first five, 10, FIFTY minutes due to traffic, I was good. So I
calmed myself down.
Oh, yeah. I knew that Vin Diesel would be established as Sean Vetter, a bad-ass
DEA agent who has just taken down a major druglord (Geno Silva) with
the help of his agency buddy (Larenz Tate), who he apparently grew up
with (or, I'm sorry, "rolled with back in the day, yo"). Twenty minutes
into the movie, Sean's beautiful wife (Jacqueline Obradors) would be
capped in a failed attempt to kill Vetter, thus setting up the revenge motif
in which family-man Tate may or may not bite it, too, as a result. Fifty or
so minutes into the movie, Vetter would be forced to turn in his badge and rely
on his street smarts and his old crew, yo, to finish the job.
Nothing really surprising happens in A Man Apart, if you have seen the
trailer or the TV commercials. Even if you haven't, the film has precious few
surprises. But as the action-movie equivalent of comfort food for the guns-and-bullets
crowd, the film is a slick, solid motion picture directed by F. Gary Gray
with decent production values. Yeah, there is an interesting twist near the
end that makes little sense the more you think about it, and the plot holes
that open up on the drive home (in much less congested traffic, of course) are
as big as 12-gauge shotgun blasts from the rampaging Diesel's rifle. The biggest
one happens after Sean is forced to turn in his badge (again, it's in the trailer),
but then he signs off on something through the official channels that he would
never be able to sign off on after doing what he had just done a few scenes
earlier ... especially when you consider who's involved.
I won't spoil it, though.
I wouldn't necessarily describe A Man Apart as "entertaining."
Gray keeps the whole proceedings pretty serious where a lighter touch may have
been wiser. Diesel does do a good job of showing anguish, and he is great in
scenes where his rage gets the better of him. I was there with the character
throughout. And I enjoyed some of the minor characters in the film, especially
Timothy Olyphant as a spacey Beverly Hills pusher and George Sharperson
as "Big Sexy," one of Vetter's former partners in crime. But Gray
and screenwriters Christian Gudegast and Paul T. Scheuring have
precious few surprises up their sleeves.
That said, the thing I loved about the movie is Sean and Tate's methodical journey
through the drug underworld to find out whether it was their jailed crime lord
who ordered the hit on Vetter and his wife or whether it was a new kingpin named
"Diablo" who was responsible. In lesser movies, I always scoff at
when the rogue cop goes right to the main villain's lair and throws down his
challenge. In A Man Apart, Vetter and his partner have to plum layer
after layer of the drug trade, from the neighborhood gang banger to the street
dealer to the middle man to the Mexican connection and finally to the main villain
(revealed only late in the film, of course). The tension comes from the realization
that the hit on Vetter's wife could have come from and/or been carried out by
anyone on any of these lower levels. When push comes to shove, will Sean jeopardize
bringing down the big-time criminal to satisfy his need for revenge?
Compelling stuff, for the most part. I just wish the experience had been a bit
more fun or engaging. A lot of people are trying to position Vin Diesel as the
new Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. That is misguided.
If anything, he reminds of the old '70s tough guys like Charles Bronson.
Actually, you know who he reminds me of the most? Telly Salvalas! Telly
on steroids, of course. But Telly nonetheless. At one point, he even asks his
doomed wife, "Who loves ya, baby?" That was Telly's line! Hey, they've
remade Charlie's Angels into a motion picture. They're currently remaking
SWAT and Starsky and Hutch. Why not Kojak with Diesel in
the lead?! Bring back the bald head, the cool threads, and the lollipop! Then,
maybe I'll love the Vinster. Maybe then he'll truly be a man apart from the
rest of the action crowd.
A Man Apart is rated R for violence, rampant foul language, sexuality,
brief nudity, and drug content. NOT one for the kids, people!
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