The Basketball Diaries | | Cast : | Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco | | Director : | Scott Kalvert | | Studio : | Umvd/Visual Entertai | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | April 21, 1995 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 08, 2005 | | Summary | An emotional, disturbing portrayl of drugs and teens | Content
 | I must admit this movie really had a huge effect on me. After watching this, I thought to myself, "How could anyone do drugs like this?" The look of this film matches the tone of it, which is a dark, gritty feel of the streets of Brooklyn during the 1960's.
This movie basically takes a real life teenager and throws him down the wrong paths in life. You can really see Leonardo DiCaprio's character grow more and more addicted to all these drugs. Physically, you can see his body become worse and worse as he becomes more plugged into the drug culture as nights go by.
I have a whole new appreciation for Leo DiCaprio. He was only 20 years old when this was made and you can tell, this young kid can act like a pro.
This film as a very indy-film look to it which seems to add to its realism unlike if it were a major Hollywood motion picture. So, if you want to see an emotional, tearjerking view of innocence crumbling into nothing, this one will suck you in. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 10, 2005 | | Summary | Not what I expected.. | Content
| Oh Leo.. why would you take this role?? I guess I can justify it since it was his early days. I rented this movie on whim. I thought this movie was perhaps a fun look at life as a teenager.. boy was I ever wrong. It was not about diaries and there was very little basketball involved. I was hoping for an inspirational story about a boy who came out of a rough neighborhood, wins the state basketball tournament, gets the girl and receives a full scholarship to Harvard, while recording these life changing moments in his diary. However, none of those events happened. I guess next time I will read the back of the movie to save myself many months of nightmares and therapy. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2005 | | Summary | Harsh Diaries | Content
| My familiarity with "The Basketball Diaries" is from reports at the time of the Columbine tragedy that this film was an influence on the perpetrators of that massacre. Having such a dubious association I was reluctant to view this film. Having now seen it I can see my reticence was unfounded. This is a gripping account of a talented teen, Jim Carroll(Leonardo DiCaprio), and his descent into the hell that is serious heroin addiction. The film depicts how even the best of us can be insidiously seduced by our innate desire for kicks to try such a horribly addictive drug. DiCaprio, who has since matured into one of our finer actors with his role in "The Aviator", shows early signs of the promise since fulfilled. Mark Wahlberg is also good as Carroll's best friend who also falls into the heroin trap. Good turns are provided by Lorraine Bracco as Jim's concerned mother and Ernie Hudson as Reggie, Jim's best friend even if he doesn't know it. The film's biggest flaw is that ostensibly it's set in the sixties but it doesn't seem to have a feel for that era. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 21, 2005 | | Summary | DiCapiro will be the next De Niro | Content
| I don't care what people say about DiCapiro, the lad is a fu*kin great actor. The Basketball Diaries is great for three things... The way its told, The New York Neighbourhood sets, the savage acting.
The voice over in the film really drags you down into the world of a junkie. The slow empty boring world. (To me its like sitting in on a wet sunday knowing school is the next day...that horrible dragging out feeling, knowing that you have to go to school the next day and hating it, and the whole day reminding yourself of the homework that has to be done and your trying to sit yourelf down to do it , but you couldn't be arsed.) Thats the feeling of a junkie on a daily basis, sitting himself down to stop his addiction but he knows he is going to have the next day to go through....just picture that horrible feeling... every day |
| Rating | | | Date | February 21, 2005 | | Summary | Engrossing | Content
| I had no idea what this film was about when I picked it up at block buster the other day. It was free for gold members, which I happen to be. Dicaprio and Ernie Hudson were in so I said, why not.
I started watching the film and I thought, oh, this is a kids movie. The next thing I knew, Dicaprio was snorting cocaine with a hot chick who promised him the coke would make him superman in bed.
And that's when the film grabbed me because I knew then that the kid was going to end up hooked. The film then depicts just how this happened to a promising young basketball player, who made way to many bad decisions in his formative years.
Check this one out. |
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