A Man Apart is a 2003 action-thriller-drama film directed by F. Gary Gray and released by New Line Cinema. The film stars Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate. The story follows undercover DEA agent Sean Vetter who's on a vendetta to take down a mysterious drug lord named Diablo after his wife is murdered. The film was released in the United States on April 4, 2003.
Plot
Sean Vetter (Vin Diesel) and Demetrius Hicks (Larenz Tate), who are ex-thugs, are members of the US DEA working on the California/Mexico border. After arresting a drug baron named Memo Lucero (Geno Silva), the mysterious "Diablo" steps in and organizes the assassination of Vetter, but his wife, Stacy (Jacqueline Obradors), is killed instead.
Looking for revenge, Vetter acts outside the law to punish his wife's murderers. To accomplish that, he asks Memo, who is now in prison, for help finding Diablo. With Hicks' help, he hunts every member of the cartel from the bottom to the top of the organization's hierarchy and finds that "Memo" is linked to the recent activities.
Cast
Production
The premise originated from an idea by producers Joseph Nittolo of Nittolo Entertainment, and producing partners Tucker Tooley & Vincent Newman of Newman/Tooley Films based on their interest in films about the drug trade. Tooley noted that the frequent cover stories in The Los Angeles Times focusing on the drug cartels and ongoing corruption in Mexico was the basis for the film. With writers Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring, the filmmakers spent four years researching and developing the project before the project got financed by New Line Cinema. Being director F. Gary Grey's favorite film, Brian De Palma's Scarface served as a major influence for the film. Richard B. Valdemar, a veteran police officer of the Sheriff's Department in Los Angeles, served as a consultant. Filming took place at various locations in and around Los Angeles County during 2001.
A scene where Sean beats a dealer to death was cut by seven seconds in order to get an R rating instead of NC-17.
Release
Box office performance
After a prolonged delay, A Man Apart was finally released April 4, 2003 in 2,459 theaters and grossed $11,019,224 on its opening weekend, ranking #3 at the box office. As of July 10, 2003, the film has a domestic box office gross of $26,736,098 and a foreign gross of $17,614,828, giving it a worldwide total of $44,350,926.
Critical reception
The film was universally panned by critics. On the film review website Rotten Tomatoes it currently holds a 10% "Rotten" with the general consensus being "Action and drama elements don't mix well in this cliched actioner".[1] The film holds an average score of 36 out of 100 based on 32 reviews on another film review site Metacritic.[2]
Home video
A Man Apart was released on DVD on September 2, 2003 as a 'barebones' release, containing no special features except deleted scenes and trailers. It was criticised for poor video transfer.
Lawsuit
The film's original title "Diablo" was the subject of a lawsuit[3] by the video game company Blizzard Entertainment in 2001 when the developer/publisher filed against New Line Cinema, claiming breach of copyright on the name Diablo (a title used by Blizzard for a franchise of role-playing games. A court initially ruled in favor of Blizzard, but reversed its decision on appeal.[4] Ultimately, New Line changed the film's name.
Soundtrack
- "The Messenjah (Tweaker Remix)" - P.O.D
- "Straight Out of Line" - Godsmack
- "Right Now" - Korn
- "I'm Tired of Good, I'm Trying Bad" - Bootsy Collins
- "Touch" - Seal
- "Descarga Total" - Maraca
- "Double Drums" - Peter Kruder
- "6 Underground" - Sneaker Pimps
- "But I Feel Good" - Groove Armada
- "King for a Day" - Jamiroquai
- "Buena" - Mark Sandman
- "My Own Prison" - Creed
- "Rover Take Over" - Lords of Acid
- "Gone!" - The Cure
- "Broken Home" - Papa Roach
- "Nothing to Lose" - Robert Smith
References
External links
