A MAN APART

A pair of special agents brainstorm with an incarcerated drug lord in an effort to bring down the jailbird’s badass successor.



CAST: Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate, Timothy Olyphant, Steve Eastin, Jacqueline Obradors, Geno Silva, Jeff Kober

DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray

"We may still be, as the film's voice-over doesn't let us forget, the No. 1 drug-consuming nation on Earth, but that doesn't mean we're eager to sit through yet another overly familiar story of drug kingpins and Mexican cartels, a tale of coded messages, satellite phones, meetings in strip clubs and characters nicknamed Overdose. Trying to figure out why this particular item got made, suspicion falls on the active participation of the man with the underwater voice, the last petulant action hero, Vin Diesel." --Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

"Mr. Diesel has the hulking physique and threatening demeanor of the nightclub bouncer he once was, but he has the soul of a stage-struck kid. The relatively actionless ‘A Man Apart’ offers him plenty of opportunities to emote, which he does with all the coltish enthusiasm of Katharine Hepburn's character in ‘Morning Glory.’"--Dave Kehr, The New York Times

" The elements are all here--the growling macho dialogue, the gunplay, the drugs, the cops, the revenge--but what do they add up to? Some sequences make no sense at all, except as kinetic energy...This movie has been filmed and released, but it has not been finished." --Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"It probably won't shock the western world to learn the latest Vin Diesel action picture is junk. Of course it is. Picture this guy performing in anything that doesn't involve him displaying his biceps, high-fiving other bulky guys and casually accepting the inexplicable devotion of nubile women. But for the guys and gals who accept Vin as their personal savior, I will say this: ‘A Man Apart’ has its moments--funny moments…So, while you're enduring the usual formulaic yada yada--from the usual slain wife to the drug cartel lords-- at least there are yuks to enjoy…And Timothy Olyphant gets a kudo or two for being a completely nutso designer drug dealer who has the good sense to realize he's playing one of the movie's many one-dimensional characters, so he might as well have insane fun." --Desson Howe, The Washington Post

"Vin Diesel, all bruised eyes and tree-trunk biceps, flexes his well-honed tough-guy persona yet again in the violent and unoriginal actioner ‘A Man Apart’…This time the mistake has been made of trying to give his mumbling, rumbling character some depth…Director F. Gary Gray unleashes a battery of energetic car chases, explosions and bloody shoot-outs, including the most ridiculous gunfire battle ever, in which a perplexing number of people appear to be shooting randomly at each other without explanation…Despite all the strenuous efforts to build sympathy for Diesel's character, it's hard to bond with a man whose explosive temper leads him to repeatedly punch a man in the head until he dies." --Megan Lehmann, The New York Post

"Diesel didn't actually direct this film, but this whole attentuated revenge drama wants little else except to further establish Diesel as an action icon. He may be one of the few faces of the next generation who might have a shot at longer-term success. But he needs to work for better directors than F. Gary Gray, whose louder-faster ethic can't elevate a cliche-strewn script by Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring…There is a lot of graphic violence in ‘A Man Apart,’ but there is little with the super-charged tension Gray strives for." --Marshall Fine, The Journal News

"There are formula movies, and then there are formula careers. Vin Diesel, like the Rock, is following a familiar path of development, from scene-stealing sidekick to cartoonish action hero to sensitive leading man. As Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme can attest, the trouble with this trajectory is that it requires the ass-kicker to become an actor. And ‘A Man Apart’ makes it painfully clear that Vin Diesel is no actor…Diesel co-produced this film, so he bears much of the blame for this shoddy shoot-'em-up, which will disappoint both head-banging action fans and females hoping to see the star's muscled torso in steamy love scenes." --Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch