Blood Diamond

Firstly, I only recently realized people are replying to my posts, and i did not know this. I am going to respond to your comments, I just didn't know before. Also, I have heard I might use too many spoilers. I can't really help using them, but I will make sure I say so before I do.

Blood Diamond is directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), and it stars Leonardo Dicaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly. It is about the diamond trade in Sierra Leone and the civil war that started over it in 1999. Leo works for the British government in a way, and smuggles diamonds and guns in and out of the country, financing the chaos. Hounsou is a Sierra Leone native who is taken captive by Leone gangster army men. Connelly is a journalist.

I thought the movie started off great. One thing I was unprepared for was just how large of an action epic this film is. This seems like a weird comparison, but it was a grittier Indiana Jones in parts. I'm not saying this is anywhere on Indiana Jones's level, I just thought there were similarities. To it's credit, it does not let up a bit for the whole moment. It only gets tedious in the way all the action scenes become the same. There is great cycling between the two leads, Hounsou and Dicaprio, and the acting is great, if you can get over Dicaprio's so-so accent.

I said the movie started off pretty good, but this tapers off. Eventually, it begins to feel long, and this is brought on by the aforementioned redundant action scenes and a really bad script (the writing was so overly melodramatic, and the scenes between Dicaprio and Connelly felt wooden).