The Basketball Diaries
1995 Directed by Scott Kalvert
Synopsis
The true story of the death of innocence and the birth of an artist.
Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
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"You gotta have presence on the court. Presence like a cheetah rather than a chimp. Sure, they both got it, but Chimpy gotta jump his nuts around to get it. The shy cheetah moves with total nonchalance, stickin' it to them in his sexy, slow strut. Me? I play like a cheetah."
A very moving and strong adaptation of such a tough story.
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For some reason I expected this movie to be better then it was, but it was still very gripping. Leonardo dicaprio's performance, was in my opinion, the best of his career....I mean, I really believed he was a junkie! Mark Waglberg was a nice co-star and also delivered a nice role. I would recommend showing this movie to young teenagers to open their eyes about the effects of drug use.
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leo's acting in this movie is absolutely amazing, such a good movie
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I can't understand why I haven't seen this movie before. Amazing performance by Leonardo Di Caprio. Always thought the 'young' Leonardo Di Caprio wasn't any good, but this movie proves the opposite.
I also like the fact it's based on a true story. It makes the movie more interesting and the story is well explained by a nice voice over.
The 'anti-drug' message is a little too much sometimes. But I doubt anyone would pick up heroin after watching this.
It's a long time ago I've seen 'Requim for a dream', but as far as I remember it's not much better than this movie.
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The Basketball Diaries (1995) is not initially about the sport itself, but about the abuse of drug consumption. The message here falls flat with it excellent cast barely saving the film from being just another "Say no to drugs" service announcement.
The Basketball Diaries recall the true events of author Jim Carroll's falling victim to drugs and seeing his world collapse in front of him. The film has a good moral to send out, but fails to give us deep characters to go with it. Skipping over character developments does it moral no favor. The film just expects to care about these characters because they are just teenagers ruining their life. Some scenes that were meant to powerful just fall…
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20 Days of DiCaprio
Day 10
Pretty good and an enjoyable watch fantastic performance from DiCaprio. This is an aged movie but a early 90s look at its best
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Its roles like this that make me sad that Leo still doesn't have an Oscar.
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De acuerdo, en esta, Di Caprio no es un principito ñoño, pero si tiene la apariencia de ello, y la peli se aprovecha de esa situación, y con acierto.
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I was hoping for something darker and more depressing. Still it holds up pretty well.
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The Basketball Diaries (1995) is not initially about the sport itself, but about the abuse of drug consumption. The message here falls flat with it excellent cast barely saving the film from being just another "Say no to drugs" service announcement.
The Basketball Diaries recall the true events of author Jim Carroll's falling victim to drugs and seeing his world collapse in front of him. The film has a good moral to send out, but fails to give us deep characters to go with it. Skipping over character developments does it moral no favor. The film just expects to care about these characters because they are just teenagers ruining their life. Some scenes that were meant to powerful just fall…
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Not very good, I'm afraid. Even though Leo DiCaprio delivers a ravishing performance (Marky Mark is very good as well), the treatment the film got is too soapy, cliche, and moralistic for its own good. A disappointment.
My recomendation: Read the original memoir by Jim Carroll and listen to this: youtu.be/Xt5OZJ1LrbQ -
Years ago I stumbled upon this movie on youtube but I gave up on it because there were parts missing, so tonight I decided to give it another go. Sad, cringeworthy, exhausting are three words I’ll use to describe it. Some of the editing made me go ??????? because I thought it was dumb and annoying but it’s whatever. Leo’s performance was insane.
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"You gotta have presence on the court. Presence like a cheetah rather than a chimp. Sure, they both got it, but Chimpy gotta jump his nuts around to get it. The shy cheetah moves with total nonchalance, stickin' it to them in his sexy, slow strut. Me? I play like a cheetah."
A very moving and strong adaptation of such a tough story.
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Drama