HotToastyRag While watching Diamonds, you'll probably feel a bittersweet combination of sadness and pride, but you won't be alone. Everyone will feel that way when watching an 83-year-old Kirk Douglas play in a movie where he used to be active and agile and now takes speech therapy lessons to stay sharp after a stroke. Now that we've gotten the sadness out of the way, let's get to the movie.Using footage from an earlier Kirk Douglas movie, Champion, the audience is shown that Kirk's character used to be a successful boxer. He tells his son that after winning a fight years ago, he was paid in diamonds, and the jewels are still hidden in Las Vegas. Together, Kirk, his son Dan Aykroyd, and his grandson Corbin Allred, go on a road trip to find the diamonds. Rather than just a strict buddy-comedy, the film has an additional dramatic element to the story: Kirk and Dan have a bad father-son relationship, and despite his best efforts, history has repeated itself with Dan and Corbin. So, in between the jokes, there's some family drama to be worked out in the movie.All in all, this is actually a pretty cute film, and if you feel you're up to watching a very old Kirk Douglas, I recommend you rent it and watch it with your dad, or whichever male family member you're on the outs with. And to the ladies out there, old Kirk's still got it! Just ask Lauren Bacall, who reunites with her costar after they acted together in 1950!

bkoganbing I'm willing to bet that Kirk Douglas liked this project so much he decided to do it again with his own son and grandson. Diamonds is a story that finds Kirk in pursuit of some diamonds he hid away in the house of an old hoodlum friend in Reno, Nevada. Back in the day Douglas was a boxer by trade and this was a payoff for throwing a big fight back in the Fifties. To make his pursuit more interesting he takes along one of his two sons Dan Ackroyd and Ackroyd's son, Corbin Allred. So three generations of the Agensky family go in pursuit of some diamonds.Of course the trip is a bonding experience for all concerned. Ackroyd just went through a bitter divorce with Allred's mother and he's been estranged from Douglas for several years.I found Diamonds to be a pleasant film, entertaining and in a few instances quite touching. The Agensky family outing also included a visit to a bordello run by Madam Lauren Bacall.Before she married Humphrey Bogart, Bacall was an acting student in New York with Kirk Douglas and she persuaded him to come to Hollywood. Back in 1951 they co-starred in Young Man With a Horn so 48 years later they're back together on the screen. They're scenes are precious.With Diamonds I think Kirk was trying to send a message that all stroke victims aren't helpless. His scene with fellow former boxer Val Bisoglio as the two old ring enemies meet are a delight and later how he obtains his quest proves that while his speech is impaired he hasn't lost one single marble.Later on Kirk Douglas did It Runs In the Family with son Michael and grandson Cameron. But I kind of like this one better.

mwengler-1 The scenes between Dan Aykroyd and Kirk Douglas where they are working through Dan's disappointment that Kirk was not a better father are fantastic! Every man who has ever been disappointed in his father should watch the old post stroke Kirk Douglas telling his son "I never kicked you in the ass, and I'm proud of that. My father beat me and I didn't beat you and that was a great thing." Maybe the definition of growing up is learning that your parents were children once, and they were hurt and disappointed and did not get enough from their parents, and that we are just all in this together, trying to find love. Maybe I am not a grown up until I have cried for the pain and disappointments my own mother and father have had in their lives, even though they also disappointed me.It is just lovely to know that even in a movie I never heard of, that never really made it, I can find such moments of genuine humanity.

grabberlime1 Here Kirk Douglas appears for all he world to see, still recovering very much from his stroke, with a very pronounced speech defect. Well known for his ego, it never the less takes guts to appear before the camera. As to the film itself, Douglas is assisted ably by Dan Ackroyd and Lauren Bacall. It is a "road" film of sorts, whereby three generations of a family attempt to mend their fences.The film unfortunately is immediately forgettable.