Take The Bad With The Good

In the latest installment of TV shows that Hollywood is turning into movies , comes word that a film version of the 70's sit-com Welcome Back, Kotter is being prepped.

While I freely admit that I liked to watch the series as a kid, back in the day, I still have to ask "why?" As often happens, with projects like this, the film version rarely captures what made the program work in the first place. I have a feeling that this is gonna happen here as well. And as it turns out, one of the shows original cast members feels the same way I do about the remake, according to ABC NEWS.

Rapper/Actor Ice Cube (?!!) is set to play the title role of Mr Kotear.

I admit that a few films in this sub-genre have worked in the past, but as far as Kotter goes, I'm afraid I just don't see it. First Dallas, now this...Sheesh!!

Roger Friedman posted a great blurb on his FOXNews.com web page yesterday about the New York premiere of Sidney Lumet's latest film Find Me Guilty.

Maybe when you hear the name Vin Diesel, you think third-rate action star. Most of the films he’s been associated with — "The Fast and the Furious," "XXX," "The Pacifier" — are not exactly high-quality literature. They’re just throwaway fun.

All that changes this Friday with the release of Sidney Lumet’s "Find Me Guilty." Bob Yari Productions is opening this tasty New York mob drama on about 500 screens, so hurry and make sure you see it so you can say you got there first.

Lumet, who has nothing to prove, has a high standard from films like "Serpico," "Prince of the City," "The Verdict," "Q&A" and the classic "12 Angry Men."

"Find Me Guilty" manages to combine all the great moments of those films, and hits a groove that harkens back to the great "Playhouse 90" TV dramas of the late 1950s. It is just a beautifully done, gritty, realistic and captivating film that no one does anymore. It’s a real movie.

Diesel, who’s almost 39 in real life, plays the late Fat Jack DiNorscio, the real-life mobster who defended himself in the U.S.’s longest Mafia trial. When DiNorscio stood trial, he was in his 50s; he died last year at age 64. The case, with 20 mob defendants, lasted 21 months.

A member of the Lucchese crime family in New Jersey, Jackie, was already in prison on a 30-year sentence when he was indicted as part of this case. The feds offered him a sentence reduction if he’d rat out his pals. Instead, he joined them, and defended himself.

You can guess what happened. Without giving too much away, there is a happy ending — more or less.

Lumet’s cast is flawless; Ron Silver is the sympathetic judge in this massive case, Linus Roache is the prosecutor, Peter Dinklage is the attorney for the other defendants, one of whom is played by the marvelous Alex Rocco, who will always be remembered as "Mo Green" from "The Godfather."

Also featured are Anabella Sciorra, Raul Esparza and Richard Portnow. It’s like a "best of" New York actors.

And each one of them makes an unusual contribution: Dinklage ("The Station Agent"), for example, suffers from dwarfism, but his height is never mentioned in the film and you never think about it. He could be six feet tall. Roache ("Priest," "Wings of the Dove") is a highly regarded English actor, but you’d never know he wasn’t a New York Irishman after seeing him here. Ron Silver does his best work in years with a meaty performance.

Then there is the setting: Lumet is working in his favorite milieu, the courthouse, jail cell, etc. He’s also at the top of his long and fabled game. Working with his "100 Centre St." cinematographer Ron Fortunato, Lumet manages to recall and expand on his greatest scenes from "12 Angry Men" and his other courtroom classics.

I just loved the big panoramas of the defendants and their lawyers dining together, voting on courses of action to take, or simply arguing while the background TV set is to horse racing. You feel like you’re at the movies for a change.

And Lumet is also an expert at turning Diesel’s possibly unlikable mook Jack into an old-fashioned hero — something very "Marty," or "On the Waterfront." Vin Diesel — I mean, yeah, Vin Diesel — seems like he’s channeling Karl Malden, Ernest Borgnine and Marlon Brando all at once.

Last night’s premiere was held at the perfect spot, too — Gallagher’s Steak House on Broadway and West 52nd St. The crowd consisted of a lot of DiNorscio’s family and friends, all of whom loved the movie and were wide-eyed by Diesel’s performance.

"When I heard Vin Diesel was going to play Jackie," one woman said to the actor, "I said, Vin Diesel? Are you kidding? But you were great. He was great," she said to me.

The real Jackie’s oncologist introduced himself to Diesel.

"Jackie loved working with you on the movie," he said. "He knew you had it."

Vin hung out with a bunch of friends at Gallagher’s empty upstairs bar. He grew up in New York, the son of a black father and an Italian mother. His real name, which he doesn’t like to give away, is Mark Vincent. His production company is called One Race.

When he was starting out, he was a bouncer at iffy nightspots like Mars and The Tunnel. Lots of bad things happened in those places. That’s where he picked up the name Diesel.

Now he’s shaking his head. "I can’t believe what people are saying," he told me. "When I was making my movie" — a short film that he got into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival — "I used a book called 'Making Movies' by Sidney Lumet. (great book that I proudly have on my book shelf. Read it!)

"I’ll best that’s the first thing you told him when you met him," I said.

Mark Vincent Diesel, newly minted actor with real credentials, replied with a grin: "And he told me, get ready for the master class."

He gets an A

Sounds like another great Lumet film...

Finally, USA Today interviewed Superman Returns star, Brandon Routh, in which he talked about the special gift he received from the late Dana Reeve, while he was filming the movie in Australia last year:

Midway through the filming of Superman Returns, star Brandon Routh received an envelope in the mail. It contained two pendants and a letter. The pendants, each emblazoned with a red S, said simply, "Go Forward."

The note from Dana Reeve, the widow of Superman Christopher Reeve, said much the same thing.

"She said she thought I'd be a good Superman," says Routh, 26, best known for a guest role on Gilmore Girls. "She wished me luck. I can't tell you what that was like to get her blessing. I was nervous, because I had never heard from the family, and it's frightening trying to fill Christopher Reeve's shoes."

Go Forward Indeed...