Vin Diesel finally gets to play a real character, said Rene Rodriguez in The Miami Herald. The muscle-bound hero of The Fast and the Furious is 'œutterly disarming' in this new persona, sporting a fake gut and a sparse wig as Giacomo 'œJackie Dee' DiNorscio, the New Jersey mobster who defended himself during a 21-month trial in the 1980s. Much of the dialogue is actually taken directly from courtroom transcripts, which recorded DiNorscio telling the jury he was a 'œgagster,' not a 'œgangster.' Diesel is a strange choice for a film by Sidney Lumet, director of such classics as 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. But Lumet doesn't seem to be taking this story too seriously. It is, after all, a 'œpretty hilarious miscarriage of justice,' in which a score of Lucchese cohorts are tried in a courtroom resembling a circus. The movie chugs along good-naturedly until the arresting cameo by Sopranos alum Annabella Sciorra, said Gene Seymour in Newsday. Only after she appears as DiNorscio's embittered ex-wife do 'œyou notice how hard Diesel has to work to keep up.'
Rating: R
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