Diggstown (1992)

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Gabriel Caine (James Woods) is a con who helps others escape from prison. He gets released. With the help of fellow inmate Wolf Forrester (Randall 'Tex' Cobb)'s sister Emily (Heather Graham) and his partner Fitz (Oliver Platt), he is setting up a con in boxing obsessed Diggstown. He loses a bet to John Gillon (Bruce Dern) when he commands a boxer to take a dive. Corrupt Gillon owns the town. Gillon's son loses his new car to Fitz. Charles Macum Diggs, the namesake of the town, knocked out 5 fighters in one day. Fitz claims that "Honey" Roy Palmer (Louis Gossett Jr.) could knock out 10 Diggstown men in 24 hours. Fitz ends up betting $100k to Gillon's $10k with Gabe's backing.The most interesting thing is finding out what the con actually is because the bet is so lopsided. Woods is a great con man. It's a role that he's built for. Oliver Platt is a terrific sidekick. LGJ has some good chemistry with Woods. The con is a bit weak. It relies a bit too much on Honey's boxing and Gillon's hubris. I hoped for a more inventive con or at least a way to show that Gabe is somehow maneuvering the pieces every inch of the way.

A perfect vehicle for wise guy James Woods, Bruce Dern, and Lou Gossett, and Oliver Platt. All deliver on the spot roles. Drama, humor, con men, boxing, surprises. Great lines from Woods..."I'll bet you $10 against five minutes with your mother...". Buy it, borrow it, watch it if you possibly can. Fun!Why ten lines of review? OK - Woods, conman, gets out of prison and seeks a scam. Finds it in Diggstown where hot-cheese Dern runs the show and is a small time boxing promoter. The bet is that Gossett can fight any ten local boxers in 24 hours and beat them all...$100,000. Lot's going on in this intelligent show. But, it's not so subtle that our majority moron movie watchers won't get it. Watch it twice if you need to. I did, and it was even better the second time.

The majority of Michael Ritchie's early films focused on the competitiveness and ruthlessness of a then contemporary United States. Be it "Downhill Racer" (1969), "Bad News Bears" (1976), "Smile" (1975), "The Candidate" (1972) or "Semi Tough" (1977), all his films during this period are explicitly about competition, American institutions and individuals who put their personal goals (and/or profits) before a team, community or group (or vice versa).Like many directors of his era, Ritchie's career took a giant nosedive come the 1980s. But "Diggstown", released in 1992, toward the tail-end of Ritchie's career, remains a strong film. A fast and funny con movie, it paints a world of clever schemers and sinister cartels. Like Ritchie's earlier features, the cost of winning, rigged games and the dangers of organised power are themes which are brought up, but such things are mostly incidental. This is Ritchie in mainstream, crowd pleasing territory, and the film is far more optimistic than his earlier work. Amongst the cast, actors James Woods and Oliver Platt stand out as a pair of charismatic, clever con men. They take on a rigged world, and come out on top.7.9/10 - Worth one viewing.

Although its genre is "comedy", you will be hard pressed to find many laughs in "Diggstown" (1992). The fights scenes won't make you forget "Raging Bull" but they are nicely staged and relatively entertaining.The film is really just a long episode of "The Rockford Files", without James Garner. Rockford regulars James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr. have the two biggest parts as they run a Rockford- style con on Bruce Dern-who plays a slim version of Boss Hogg. Woods bets Dern that his aging fighter (Gossett) can defeat ten opponents in 24 hours. Heather Graham fans should not expect much, she looks great but her part is very small and seems tacked onto the story as an excuse to get her name associated with the film. Oliver Platt ("Ready to Rumble") and Gossett give the strongest performances.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.