Blood Diamond
A film of two halves - Eoghan Bolger
Blood Diamond
Blood diamond is an action thriller film starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Djimon Hounsou, it is 140 minutes long and is directed by Edward Zwick. The story centres on a mercenary, a fisherman, a journalist and a group businessmen and terrorists looking for diamonds in war torn Africa.
I really wanted to award this film a four star at least rating, the acting is superb with Dicaprio pulling off a convincing accent and a believable performance by Hounsou. The movie is well produced and has its heart in the right place and is a strong social commentary about our world and people even today.
The characters are developed fully and fleshed out and everyone's motivations are laid out on the table.
However the movie extends its running time for too long, drags far too often, gets caught up in self indulgence and falterings in execution. Dicaprio's character isn't always believable, well develop yes but mechanically only, this needed a television time slot to make his transition seem smoother.
The action, as is the film itself largely intense but Zwick wants to make two movies here, all well and good the combat scenes are exciting but should they be? They were to me but they steer to close to turning the violence into popcorn entertainment, they are raw without being so, they are not empty, cold enough.
The ending abuses predictability and worst of all a particular deus ex development and the romance in the film feels tacked on.
It's a mixed bag, unwilling to fully commit, a good story and set of characters yes but mediocre execution and an unbalanced, narrative hamper it.
As an independent movie or mini series I can see this feeling more at home within that format.
I should have been more engaged here and while its good sailing for the first half mostly and easy enough to ignore things as it unravels we get an action film that while it has a brain and offers something more but despite not coming off as preachy the movie is just too much at odds.
Choose, give me an action movie or a thoughtful drama/thriller.
Verdict: **
Review published on the 06 May 2012 20:14
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20 March 2007 12:57
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Go see it! - Sheila
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20 February 2007 21:56
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11 February 2007 01:45
A must see -
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09 February 2007 13:29
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08 February 2007 19:05
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06 February 2007 19:56
...thank god I don't pay attention to reviews... - Anne
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31 January 2007 11:16
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29 January 2007 14:47
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29 January 2007 09:50
Diamond in the Rough - Carol
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26 January 2007 09:04
the good, the bad and the ugly - bryan the pirate
Is this film really set in a spaghetti western driectors own civil war?
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19 January 2007 15:43
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