Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

SnoopyStyle Catholic schoolboy Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives with his mother (Lorraine Bracco). He's the brash leader of his friends Pedro (James Madio), Neutron (Patrick McGaw) and Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) sniffing glue and causing trouble. They play winning basketball for their lecherous coach Swifty (Bruno Kirby). His best friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) is dying of leukemia. He plays neighborhood ball with Reggie (Ernie Hudson). He starts to do cocaine and then heroin which sends him down a very dark road.The movie seems to take place in both the present day and somewhere in the 60s. That conflicted feel along with the poetic diary entries create a surreal dreamlike vibe. It takes the tension out of the movie and limits the immediacy. Leo and everybody do a good job. Leo's star power shines and keeps the movie interesting. However, I just don't feel a sense of danger from this dark coming-of-age movie.

The_Film_Cricket Oddly enough I saw 'The Basketball Diaries' the day after seeing 'Bad Lieutenant'. Both are stories of men out of control on drugs. But 'Lieutenant' was more realistic, it presented a downward spiral of drugs without all the tired plot baggage that weighs this movie down.Leonardo DiCaprio is miscast as Jim, a basketball star at a St. Vitus High School whose heroin addiction threatens to become his life. He drops out of school, his mother throws him out, he begin prostituting himself and he refuses contact with anyone who sees that he has a problem No cliché is spared here: Jim gets help from a former junkie (Ernie Hudson) who doesn't want him to throw his life away. He watches as his former friend become successful on the basketball court and there is the inevitable scene where he goes to his mother begging for money. Adults in this film fall into three categories: Sinner, saint and fed up.This is hard-hitting stuff but we've seen it all before. The plot and the characters are cardboard cut-outs from every afternoon special ever made. It's a familiar road, we know the signs, we know the speedbumps and we know the destination.Rating: ** (of four)

Gorka Arrechea Didn't know the movie, found it while browsing IMDb, so i wasn't expecting such a movie.It has a very powerful message, about drugs, like many other movies. But in this one you can see the process in much detail. Would say in some aspects similar to Requiem for a dream. Just maybe here you can grasp the intensity of the main character's feelings deeper.Leonardo DiCaprio, in my opinion makes a fabulous role in this movie. Although 21 years old, seems as though he was 15 (real protagonist's age), and so makes a stronger point. He is able to act scenes as though he really is a heavy heroin user therefore convincing the audience.Mark Wahlberg too, so young and great acting.Overall a dark, sometimes stressing, hard movie that I would recommend.

david-sarkies There was a huge uproar regarding this movie because of a scene where the main character walks into his classroom and starts gunning everybody down with a shotgun. As is typical everybody has missed the whole point of the movie. It is not designed to encourage school shootings, but to show people what heroin is really like. When it comes to violence on television and video games then I will repeat what was said to me once, not that anybody will listen - people are so stubborn that once that have a mindset, no amount of reason will change their mind. Anyway, before television there was an awful lot of violence - the Napoleonic Wars, the thirty years war, the crusades, and even World War I: probably one of the most violent of wars. Even then before literature or even the written language, Cain killed Abel, and he did not do it because a video game made him think that it was a good idea. Violence is apart of our nature and we do it because we are frustrated with the world and the way people react to us. It is basic to our nature, and I am not saying that it is alright, but rather stopping violence in the media is not going to change anything.The Basketball Diaries is about a heroin addict. We follow his life from when he becomes one to when he finally gives up. Even though he does not start off as a heroin addict, he is still taking drugs, or rather sniffing glue. He, Jim Carol, hangs with three other friends and they simply act like teenagers with a lot of energy. Jim is also a champion basketball player. There is a darker side to his life and that is that his best friend is dying of Leukemia. He does not want to believe it, but it is reality and once he dies things slowly begin to change. We are not sure what really happens, but I guess it has something to do with the realisation that they are no longer immortal. But that is not the main reason, it more has to do with the pain and the loss that he suffers after his friend dies, and it is not something that they could have fought against - in fact he was powerless to do anything about it. The realisation of ones weakness is a true humbliser.Starting the addiction is not focused that heavily on in the movie, but his first trip is, and it shows him running through a field of flowers. It is more that he describes how all of his pain has gone away - both the emotional and the physical. This is the thing about Heroin - it is one of the world's best painkillers, but it is also an incredibly addictive drug. What we see is how his life collapses around him as he becomes addicted to Heroin. He is kicked out of school, slowly looses his friends as they are each arrested for various crimes, and finally he himself is taken away as he lies in a pathetic heap before the door to his mothers' apartment. Near the end we even see him resort of Homosexuality, something that horrifies him, especially when he is molested by the basketball coach, to get money for drugs. This is further undermined when the drugs he purchases are fake.The Basketball Diaries is an incredible movie and shows something that we wish to ignore. The school shooting scene is not all that bad, and more shows his frustration with life and the way the drugs take away this frustration - but at a cost. It is something that has been taken right out of proportion and as such people take the wrong idea about the film.