Tom Willett (yonhope) Hi, Everyone, Pier Angeli's memory is not tarnished by this soap opera cheeseball of a movie. Everyone else seems to be fair game. Mike Connors is good as Jack Warner but it is not a great enough part for him to be offered a spin off series.Casper fails to connect as James Dean. His closest portrayal of the 1950s screen legend is when Casper recreates the public service TV spot James Dean did for safe driving. That is done in black and white with someone who does not look, sound or act at all like Gig Young who was the actor in the announcement with James Dean.Poor, poor casting throughout. The guy who plays Vic Damone is probably more suited for some part in a Hulk Hogan gladiator arena scene than trying to pass himself off as Vic. Vic Damone was a classy singer who happened to fall in love with the same girl James Dean was dating. He was not an ox.Bob Mitchum does a good job trying to play the part of George Stevens. He was about 80 playing a man about 50. They don't have makeup even in Hollywood that can fix that. Good try. Failed. Next.Casey Kasem? Yeah. Get me Casey and Connie Stevens. Let's really try to get some names. Is Weird Al available? Connie and Casey try to do their roles, but they have no meat to chew on. The guy who plays Sal Mineo should team up with the Vic Damone guy and apply for that Hulk Hogan epic. Sal he ain't.The music is so bad it is embarrassing. They try to play songs with words that someone wrote for the scene or the movie. The lyrical content of the songs is clichéd to the utmost. If they wanted words, why not hire Chuck Berry or The Eagles or someone who can write meaningful product. The director should have watched some movies where the music was a part of the film. Movies like A Summer Place, Picnic, Jailhouse Rock, High Noon or the TV series Dragnet.The writing is trite. The scenes are unbelievable.OK... one reasonably good scene is where the accident takes place. I have seen photos of the accident. The car that is used as the Turnipseed car seems accurate. I give the accident scene an 8. It could have been a nine if they had not shown Casper in the car. Even as a corpse he fails to capture James Dean's character.Tom Willett

Christopher Mercurio I'd like to say first that the makers of this film and Casper Van Dien have no idea who James Dean is. All they know is that he was an actor that was madly in love with Pier Angeli and drove fast. This movie is pathetic. The direction is terrible, the writing is horrible, the music is annoying, and the acting is horrendous. This movie is not about James Dean, so don't be fooled. It's about some idiot that dresses like and calls himself James Dean. Instead of getting James Dean you get a guy that sounds like a whiny little kid and who constantly gets speeding tickets. Seriously, Casper Van Dien cannot act for his life. If someone had a gun to his head and said act like James Dean, he'd be dead as soon as he opened his mouth. If I were Casper I'd be too ashamed to even look at myself in the mirror. That guy is really pathetic and should be ashamed of himself. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make this movie or to even get Casper Van Dien to play James Dean, is a moron. Everyone who made this movie should be shot. I don't even know if you'd call it a movie. It's like the whole thing is one big practical joke. The whole time I was watching this movie I was shocked at how bad it was. It would be a joke to even compare this movie to the James Franco movie about James Dean. All I'm going to say is see the Franco movie. See that great movie and see James Dean's movies. But avoid this trash. This movie is just so pathetic it's not even funny.

ParanoidAndroidMarvin James Dean: Race With Destiny (a.k.a James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young) is a terrible movie that disgraces a screen legend. The production values are painfully low, and coupled with the shoddy acting, the resulting feel is that you're watching a soap opera. And a bad one, at that. Why anyone though Casper Van Dien could play James Dean evades me. He was fine in "Sleepy Hollow," and other films, but this is clearly not a role for him. To make matters worse, his performance is terrible. The film portrays Dean as a rude buffoon. Although I have seen "Rebel Without A Cause," I don't know much about Dean himself, but I've often heard he was actually quite shy. If this is in fact the case, the film severely misrepresents him.The script is also poor, complete with ridiculous stereotypes such as Pier Angeli's mother saying "bonjourno," and "gratzi" every 25 seconds, as though the viewer needs to be reassured that she's Italian. There are also visual blunders. In the opening sequence, Dean is in the middle of a race, and happens to be sporting a modern racing helmet, instead of a 1950s one. Things like that might have been excusable if the overall production was better, but it isn't.Instead of suffering through this terrible affair, check out "James Dean," starring James Franco. That film is great in its own right, but it's downright genius compared to this waste of time.

dovie_corleone I just saw James Dean: Live fast Die young, and somewhat (if not very) dissapointed of the film. I'm not an actor but I watch movies, especially classic movies, religiously. Putting Casper Van Dien as Jimmy Dean in this picture is a sin, he did a very dissapointing job portraying Dean. My most dissapointment goes for the team that made this film. Back in those days smoking was COOL! And Van Dien couldn't even drag a cigarette. The Lighting is biased, did they try to make look like an old movie, or what? The same goes to the motorcycle- riding scene. But it is good to see that somebody finally decide to make a movie about America's Legend. But I am sorry that I bought this DVD instead of renting it... =) Peace to all of you