Every week I will be posting a great and memorable movie monologue. To start it off, I figure I’ll go with one of my favorite monologues of all times in an incredibly underrated film. While some may scoff at Vin Diesel, he used to be a creditable actor. And still is, in my opinion. However, at the height of his dramatic acting abilities, he was a member of a powerful enesmble featuring Barry Pepper, Seth Green, John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper in the 2001 film, Knockaround Guys.
Diesel plays Taylor Reese, a thug with a heart of gold (my favorite kind), willingly to do anything to help his best buddy, Matty Demerat (Barry Pepper), the son of a powerful mob boss, get back his father’s money which was stolen from them during a layover in a small mid-western town. When deciding on a way to get information about the money’s whereabouts, Reese suggests they beat up the toughest guy in town, who then in turn, will find out where the money is, so things can go back to normal. The gang of wanna be Mobsters go to the ultimate shitkicker bar, which leads us up to the following monologue, which happens about 47 seconds into the clip.
I think this is a great fucking movie and Diesel is absolutely perfect. Judge for yourselves…
500 fights, that’s the number I figured when I was a kid. 500 street fights and you could consider yourself a legitimate tough guy. You need them for experience. To develop leather skin. So I got started. Of course along the way you stop thinking about being tough and all that. It stops being the point. You get past the silliness of it all. But then, after, you realize that’s what you are.
–Taylor Reese (Vin Diesel) in Knockaround Guys (2001)
Karen the Blog Slayer 