Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Kaelan Mccaffrey
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
bkoganbing
I'm willing to bet that Kirk Douglas liked this project so much he decided to do it again with his own son and grandson. Diamonds is a story that finds Kirk in pursuit of some diamonds he hid away in the house of an old hoodlum friend in Reno, Nevada. Back in the day Douglas was a boxer by trade and this was a payoff for throwing a big fight back in the Fifties. To make his pursuit more interesting he takes along one of his two sons Dan Ackroyd and Ackroyd's son, Corbin Allred. So three generations of the Agensky family go in pursuit of some diamonds.Of course the trip is a bonding experience for all concerned. Ackroyd just went through a bitter divorce with Allred's mother and he's been estranged from Douglas for several years.I found Diamonds to be a pleasant film, entertaining and in a few instances quite touching. The Agensky family outing also included a visit to a bordello run by Madam Lauren Bacall.Before she married Humphrey Bogart, Bacall was an acting student in New York with Kirk Douglas and she persuaded him to come to Hollywood. Back in 1951 they co-starred in Young Man With a Horn so 48 years later they're back together on the screen. They're scenes are precious.With Diamonds I think Kirk was trying to send a message that all stroke victims aren't helpless. His scene with fellow former boxer Val Bisoglio as the two old ring enemies meet are a delight and later how he obtains his quest proves that while his speech is impaired he hasn't lost one single marble.Later on Kirk Douglas did It Runs In the Family with son Michael and grandson Cameron. But I kind of like this one better.
folkpicker959
A movie doesn't need lots of hi-tech special effects to make it good. In fact, most movies nowadays seem to have been made just to show off the pyrotechnics as being the primary reason for making it, not the story. The only "special effect" this movie needed was the presence of Mr Douglas himself. Rather than trying to hide the effects of his stroke, Kirk Douglas uses it to enhance his character. Dan Akroyd could have phoned in some of his scenes, but all in all I feel he did a creditable job. Best movie of Mr Douglas' career? Nope. But while Mom's home-made chicken soup may not be the best in the world either, it's warm, tasty, and is pretty damned good all the same. So is this movie.
neal-57
A quietly charming film that starts slow and builds: Father (Dan Ackroyd) and son (Corbin Allred) take Grandpa (Kirk Douglas) along on a vacation trip, despite the fact that Gramps has had a stroke and his health--physical and mental--is in question. Those who've read Kirk's books, "Climbing the Mountain" and "My Stroke of Luck" will realize just how many of Kirk's real experiences have been written into the role, especially his continuing efforts to improve his damaged speech. (Who will ever forget the 1995 Academy Awards, when Kirk, just weeks after the stroke, came out to accept his honorary Oscar, and forced recognizable speech out of a mouth that was, at the time, very much a ruined instrument?) The film begins with a uneasy tenseness that makes it hard to enjoy, but this moderates as we come to know the characters, and a certain largeness of spirit appears when the three generations enter a brothel, run by Lauren Bacall, whose screen magic hasn't diminished one little bit. Incidentally, this is only the second film Douglas and Bacall have made together; the first was "Young Man With a Horn" in 1949. Does that mean we have to wait until 2O49 for them to do it again?
Jason Platt
I have never seen Kirk Douglas act as well as he does in this film--stroke or no stroke. Lauren Bacall (who starred with Kirk Douglas previously in the 1950 film "Young Man With A Horn"), Dan Ackroyd, and Corbin Allred provide top-notch support, but this is mainly Kirk Douglas' showcase. The only criticism I can perhaps make is the sugar-coated way the film treats prostitution, however a cynical view of prostitution wouldn't fit in this movie. This is a movie that should appeal to all age groups.
