Blood Diamond - not bad at all. Academy have got it spot on - DiCaprio and Hounsou are definately worthy of noms, but the film isnt quite there over all. The story is really good, totally engrossing and, while rather simple, still fully credible. I may be impartial because I love films about Africa, but I found to be a fantastic glimpse at the generic troubles of African nations, and at times a very frightening portrait. The action sequences are superbly shot, better infact than most action movies, and are prolonged without declining in quality. The dirtyness of the situation and unpleasantness of the characters is also well captured. I do feel that it does try a little too hard to make a point about conflict diamonds and to "change people's outlook", a dangerous thing for hollywood movies to try and do. All this really shows is that there are things called conflict diamonds, lots of people die over them and there are some bad men working in the diamond industry. I could have told you that. The story, while credible, isnt real enough for any parallels to be drawn with and real events and, at times, it takes the moral high ground a little too much for its own good. DiCaprio is phenominal, just gets better and better. Apparantly his accent is not spot on, but it was good enough for me and the rest of his portrayal is fantastic. Even better than he was in the Departed, I would say. Hounsou is a great find, and there is great support all round. Only elt down is Jennifer Connolly who is especially bland playing a generally bland character. But all in all a movie that was better than I expected and definately worth watching.
The graphic editors did a pretty darn good job tho.
