Available at Amazon.com
Produced, Written, and Directed by
Vin Diesel
Cast
Vin Diesel ………. Rick
Joey Dedio ………. Fred
Suzanne Lanza ………. Heather
Mike Epps
F. Valentino Morales ………. Tony
Darnell Williams ………. Keith
T.K. Kirkland
Run Time: 105 minutes
Rated R
DVD Release date: January 15, 2008
About 10 years ago, Vin Diesel was a struggling actor (and former bouncer) working as a telemarketer. As it turned out, few roles were being developed for chiseled and bald-headed half-black/half Italians.
So Vin Diesel decided to make his own movie. Writing, directing, producing and starring in a film is difficult stuff, even if your name is Orson Welles. Just imagine how hard it is when your chosen sobriquet is that of a fractional distillate of petroleum.
Anyways, that movie turned out to be Strays, a little known film which was accepted into the 1997 Sundance festival. Strays tells the story of Rick, a womanizing drug-dealer struggling to find meaning in his life. Rick has grown jaded with his vapid existence of wearing wife-beaters and gold chains, clubbing, copulating with strangers, and smoking pot with his dim and over-sexed friends.
So, Rick attempts to seek a deeper understanding of himself by courting his preppie neighbor, singing show tunes, laying shirtless in bed, and making half-hearted attempts not to sleep with strippers. His soul-searching comes up empty, so he yells at his friends and decides to visit his mom.
Movie over.
All in all, there isn’t much of a story. What is there in terms of plot is sloppy at best. A number of scenes lead nowhere, screaming edit, while others are redundant. An important fight scene in the film is an abrupt and confusing jumble.
The dialogue is troubling as well. The lines exchanged by Rick and his loser friends sound fairly realistic. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever hung out with these sorts of fellas, you’ll know that listening to them speak for any length of time is a tedious affair peppered with simplistic jokes and permutations of obscenities. Beyond that, these lines are sometimes the victims of stiff delivery. The dialogue between Rick and his prospective girlfriend aspires towards the sort of snappy banter one might find in a Cary Grant movie, but falls far short of His Girl Friday. Mostly, this courtship makes me embarrassed for the movie.
This is not to say that I hated the film. Truth be told, the film has its charms. There is something honest about the singular vision of a writer/director/star, even if that writer/director/star is the often unloved Mr. Diesel. The characters in Stays aren’t made out to be heroes or demons or victims; they’re just those beefy, greasy, immature guys most of us know. It also has the likability of a film made for $50,000. (For those keeping score, Vin Diesel would go on to make 230 times that much just for The Chronicles of Riddick.)
Strays also stars Mike Epps (of numerous bad movies), Joey Dedio (the fire kid from left wing propaganda cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers), and Diesel’s right-hand man, Valentino Morales.
The DVD
Audio and Visual
The movie looks and sounds fine, considering it was made for 50,000 dollars.
The Extras
There is one “making of” featurette, which runs nearly 40 minutes. It’s fairly interesting, quite comprehensive, and a bit to effusive over Vin Diesel.
