A Man Apart

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A Man Apart ★★ 2003 (R)

As action buddy cop movies go, this is one. Sean Vetter (Diesel) is a DEA agent, who, along with partner and childhood pal Hicks (Tate), has just closed a seven-year case by busting cartel head Lucero (Silva). Before the ink is dry on Lucero's fingerprints, Vetter's plot device wife is killed on the orders of the supposedly-defunct cartel's new ruler, El Diablo. Vetter goes into full revenge mode, and all semblence of restraint is eliminated, from Sean and the movie. No cop revenge flick cliche (or pyrotechic equipment) goes unused as Vetter and Diablo careen toward the inevitable showdown, with Hicks and many other cannon-fodder secondary characters hanging on for the wild ride. As you might expect, it all looks really cool, and stuff continues to get blowed up real good. 114m/C VHS, DVD . US Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate, Timothy Olyphant, Geno Silva, Jacqueline Obradors, Steve Eastin, Juan Fernandez, Jeff Kober, George Shaperson; D: F. Gary Gray; W: Christian Gudegast, Paul Scheuring; C: Jack N. Green; M: Anne Dudley.