A fresh out of jail con man Gabriel Cain (James Woods) and local Diggstown business man and scumbag John Gillon (Bruce Dern) both agree to stitch the other over.
The contest on paper is for Cain’s man Honey Roy Palmer (Louis Gossett Jr.) to fight ten of Gillon’s hand chosen men in the ring in the same 24 hour period. In reality the contest is to see who can stitch the other man up by whatever means necessary.
Both sides have the upper hand at various times and the stakes grow very high very quickly. It soon becomes a contest to see who has the upper hand at the right time.
The film proposes that Honey Roy Palmer is 48 at the time of the fight. In reality Louis Gossett Jr. appears a decade older and carries a well earned pot belly that would seem unlikely on any elite power athlete.
James Woods tries on his best Chevy Chase quick talking impression, only without the stream of jokes. Oliver Platt appears as Cain’s enabler and aide, and Heather Graham pops up to be the jailbait love interest for Woods.
Without the compelling fight scenes of Creed and co there is a limit to how effective things can be. Ultimately scam movies are only as good as the scam. That shouldn’t be a shock. Diggstown aka Midnight Sting has a solid cast, a few decent laughs and maintains a fast pace, but the final scam is underwhelming and the film overall finds a similar fate.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Rocky it ain’t, but you could do a lot worse.
