Nothing much appealing on last night so we watched Vin Diesel’s essentially failed attempt to broaden his proven base beyond big budget flicks with this look at a cop driven beyond the pale. A Man Apart didn’t do the box office New Line Cinema had hoped nor did it get the kind of critical reaction Diesel wanted.
The story is basic enough, and Diesel actually gives a fine performance, so I blame director F. Gary Gray (who did a much better job on his next movie, The Italian Job) or perhaps writers Paul Scheuring and Christian Gudegast. This is a police thriller, not science fiction, and I really don’t expect to have to suspend my disbelief quite as much as A Man Apart demands. For instance, at the begining Diesel and his DEA team take part in a raid of a Tijuana nightclub by their Mexican counterparts; while officially the Americans are not allowed guns, someone reaches in a bag and passes enough of them around so everyone has one but in the end their are no repercussions and the targetted drug lord is simply whisked off to American justice (second impossibility as their would be years of court battles over extradition).
not recommended
BillSaysThis 