A good movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Leonardo DiCaprio has a pretty impressive track-record but, to be honest, some of his movies are a little bit overrated in my opinion and this movie definitely belongs to this category. Anyway, let’s start with the good stuff. It was dealing with a topical subject and the whole thing looked actually really grim and realistic. In fact, when I re-watched it, I was with my wife and she was actually really shocked by how dark and violent the whole thing was. Eventually, she was even pissed off that I chose this movie to watch with her because she believed that it wasn’t appropriate whatsoever. Anyway, as far as I was concerned, I thought it was definitely an intriguing and entertaining story. Some people criticized DiCaprio because his accent was not convincing but since I’m not familiar with the South African accent, it didn’t bother whatsoever and I thought he did a pretty good job here. For once, his character was a little bit different than what he usual does, a greedy bastard. Unfortunately, towards the end, this fellow really changed and showed us he actually had a heart. It might be nice and cozy for the mainstream audience but I thought it was too bad and it would take many years before DiCaprio would dare play an even darker character. Concerning Jennifer Connely, well, I think she was wasted playing your typical beautiful reporter and Djimon Hounson was actually the best of the three and if he would have been the main character, the damned thing could have been actually really great. Indeed, like so many similar movies, it dealt with some major issue in Africa by focusing on a white main character which is always a misguided approach. Finally, I forgot that this movie was actually quite long and I don’t think that such a straightforward story required such an extensive running time. Anyway, to conclude, even though I tend to think it is rather overrated, it is still a pretty good flick though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.


7/10