Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

bkoganbing Try as he may Casper Van Dien could not overcome the bad casting as James Dean in James Dean: Race With Destiny. I'm not sure anyone could have played the part and not be criticized as Dean has become such an iconic figure for America's young.He does his best, but the guy who played such an All American hero as John Rico in Starship Troopers and made a terrifically hunky screen Tarzan is just too white bread for the part of James Dean. Van Dien just does not suggest a rebel persona that would be so essential to playing Dean. Maybe the late River Phoenix or Leonardo DiCaprio might have done justice to the role, but they themselves have some rather fixed images.The story line is about roughly the last year of Dean's 24 year time on earth. We meet him first making East of Eden and driving folks like Jack Warner and director Elia Kazan crazy with his driving. When not successful in wooing Pier Angeli, Dean courts other women like an up and coming Ursula Andress and spends his time racing his motorcycle or his automobile. If we're to believe this, all might have gone well for Dean and Angeli had they been able to settle down and marry. Sad to say though Dean could not overcome the handicap of not being Italian. Pier Angeli and her sister Marisa Pavan were dominated by their mother in the same way as Jean Harlow was, as Natalie Wood was. Diane Ladd plays the domineering mother and she's got a husband picked out for Pier in the person of singer Vic Damone. Jimmy's willing to become the best Catholic ever, but can't change his ancestry.Of course one big flaw in this film is that it completely ignores James Dean's other sexual side. It's been reported in any number of places that Dean had a gay side to him. That might have been more of a problem than not being Italian.Casper Van Dien's wife at the time, Carrie Mitchum plays Pier Angeli. She is the granddaughter of that other screen icon Robert Mitchum and the Van Diens got Mitchum to play a couple of scenes as director George Stevens of Giant. In a few months Mitchum would be no longer with us and it's horrifying to see the ravages of lung cancer in him.Though I think Casper Van Dien was miscast as James Dean, I'm not sure even the alternatives I mentioned could have stood up to the criticism leveled at this film. James Dean still looms large in our collective conscious, maybe too large.

Tom Willett (yonhope) Hi, Everyone, Pier Angeli's memory is not tarnished by this soap opera cheeseball of a movie. Everyone else seems to be fair game. Mike Connors is good as Jack Warner but it is not a great enough part for him to be offered a spin off series.Casper fails to connect as James Dean. His closest portrayal of the 1950s screen legend is when Casper recreates the public service TV spot James Dean did for safe driving. That is done in black and white with someone who does not look, sound or act at all like Gig Young who was the actor in the announcement with James Dean.Poor, poor casting throughout. The guy who plays Vic Damone is probably more suited for some part in a Hulk Hogan gladiator arena scene than trying to pass himself off as Vic. Vic Damone was a classy singer who happened to fall in love with the same girl James Dean was dating. He was not an ox.Bob Mitchum does a good job trying to play the part of George Stevens. He was about 80 playing a man about 50. They don't have makeup even in Hollywood that can fix that. Good try. Failed. Next.Casey Kasem? Yeah. Get me Casey and Connie Stevens. Let's really try to get some names. Is Weird Al available? Connie and Casey try to do their roles, but they have no meat to chew on. The guy who plays Sal Mineo should team up with the Vic Damone guy and apply for that Hulk Hogan epic. Sal he ain't.The music is so bad it is embarrassing. They try to play songs with words that someone wrote for the scene or the movie. The lyrical content of the songs is clichéd to the utmost. If they wanted words, why not hire Chuck Berry or The Eagles or someone who can write meaningful product. The director should have watched some movies where the music was a part of the film. Movies like A Summer Place, Picnic, Jailhouse Rock, High Noon or the TV series Dragnet.The writing is trite. The scenes are unbelievable.OK... one reasonably good scene is where the accident takes place. I have seen photos of the accident. The car that is used as the Turnipseed car seems accurate. I give the accident scene an 8. It could have been a nine if they had not shown Casper in the car. Even as a corpse he fails to capture James Dean's character.Tom Willett

bograde Unless this script was written based on Pier Angeli's romantic memories; and lack of grasp on who James Dean was. Now this could have been the case that the Angeli family sold her personal letters or something. As best I've read Dean's most serious love was Dizzy Sheridan; he just smarted from being dumped by the Italian beauty queen. The film made it seem like he was suicidal on their breakup; and that was part of why he had the accident that killed him. These are very very, silly inferences!It is criminal to have produced and released this. The film made it seem like Dean was just an precocious teenager with no depth or IQ.

kg22384 Just shoot me now and get it over with. From the second this movie started, I hated it. Awwwww. An attempt at a dramatic sihlouette backlit by the sun. AWWWWW. And as the James Dean they chose an Anit-Dean. Van Dien seemed to mimick facial expressions Dean used in his films. STOP ALREADY! Stop imitating his facial expressions, you dope, and get into his philosphy. Become the character, screw the director, screw yourself. All that matters is that character. The worst part about it, they took real events from Dean's life(which you think would make it more authentic) and managed to make them seem like they were written for a tv movie. How pathetic is that. The movie is choppy and stale. There's no emotion, no heart, no soul. And what was up with Van Dien saying 20 ways till sunday, near the end. Fine, so Dean was heard saying 20 ways till sunday now and again. Doesn't mean you're doing character improvisation by repeating it. I would give it less than a one, but it had real events in his life, and that porsche spyder was near identical.