Below is a mixture of reviews edited by me along with my thoughts on the film “Blood Diamond” because I couldn’t have phrased things any better than what these reviewers already did.

I never thought I’d ever like a movie with DiCaprio in it. Not until I watched this movie and seen his brilliant performance in it. I liked Blood Diamond so much I watched on DVD 3 times in row!!! When I first heard of this film I was expecting your standard innocent Westerners trapped in war torn Africa but the movie was much more than that and much better than that too. It’s easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m not exaggerating.

Don’t be fooled by the official trailer up there. Only crappy movies get good trailers, you know.
To sum it up, Blood Diamond is a combination of an action flick, a rescue mission and political issues all woven together to make a truly captivating and heart wrenching story. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a great performance *deserving his Oscar nomation for it* as Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler who, due to certain circumstances, forcibly teams up with the villager Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) in a harsh quest to recover a rare large pink diamond buried by Vandy behind rebel lines. Both men seek the diamond for different reasons but are forced to work together.
Jennifer Connelly was also pretty great in this movie as reporter Maddy Bowen trying to uncover proof of the connection between the atrocities of conflict diamonds in war-torn Africa and the mainstream diamond industry outside of the continent.

What made this movie so moving to me is knowing that this isn’t an entirely fictional story. It’s based on the real horrors of the Sierra Leone conflict and it is also a reminder of the current conflict in those regions. The events surrounding Vandy and his family especially his son were very heart wrenching; even more to know that such events are still taking place on a daily basis in certain parts of the world. Not that we ever hear about such events on the news. Connelly had a pretty striking line when they arrived at the refugee camp: “This is what a million people looks like, although you won’t see it on CNN.”

In addition to being a great action/adventure/character flick, this movie had an important message to tell about conflict diamonds. I was glad that the movie didn’t beat us over the head with that message; but on the other hand, I feel like maybe it should have. What is it going to take for society to finally get the message and take a firm stand against such atrocities? My heart sank a little in my chest when Vandy asked Bowen “after you write about us, your country will come to help us, right?” I knew the answer before Bowen even spoke it: “probably not.”

Yes, this film has a reasonably happy ending and some resolution for all concerned. What it does not have is any fear of covering it’s subject matter. Blood Diamond is brutally honest in it’s coverage of the troubles in Africa and the Western consumer’s role in them.

The atrocities on display in this film, while only moderately graphic, are utterly harrowing. To see groups of children mutilated, families slaughtered and the remaining youngsters hered away and brainwashed into cold blooded rebel killing machines, is at the very least heartbreaking. At worst it makes you ashamed and angry of the lifestyle we all lead.

In one significant scene the film takes great pains to remind us that the word infantry literally means child soldier, and as a young boy coldly shoots the faith-filled social worker who tells us this, we are told that there is no place for hope and idealism here. This is Africa.

Blood Diamond is a movie with a message, and a conscience. It is made to tell us that bad things are happening, and not only do we largely ignore these bad things, but indirectly we contribute to them.
It concludes with hope, but then again, as I said, it’s a movie. In reality the troubles do not end when the credits role, and it makes sure we know it. It does not preach. It is not trying to necessarily make us feel guilty but director Edward Zwick wants us to feel something.

As a movie carrying the heavy weight of a dark and important subject matter on it’s shoulders Blood Diamond is a huge success.
As a story and a film set against this terrible backdrop Blood Diamond is even more of a triumph; fascinating, emotional, exciting, beautiful and communicated perfectly by it’s two outstanding male leads.

Everyone should see this film so make sure you watch it too if you haven’t yet.

p.s.:
Make sure you get it’s soundtrack by James Newton Howard. It has some amazing tracks that’ll always remind you of your favorite moments of this film.

And on an unrelated note, here is a small art update for today.

Maybe I’m way behind the times, but I finally got around seeing this movie and I really enjoyed it, which isn’t surprising since I happen to be a big Will Smith fan 8D.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing “I Am Legend” for some months already, and I must say, it was worth the wait. I didn’t read the book so my opinion regarding this movie is totally unbiased. For the people who’ve read the book, well, you have something to compare the movie to and I noticed majority of you are disappointed. But to be fair, I don’t think the movie could have gone deeper than what it already is without taking more than 2 hours. Of course, it would have been nice to know a little more about how it all started, the dark seekers and a more elaborate ending but in a time slot of 2 hours, I don’t think it’d be possible so some details had to be compromised.

In short, the story is about a military doctor named Robert Neville who believes he is the last human on earth after the outbreak of a wide spread viral infection through out the world killing more than 90% of humanity, turning 9% to ‘zombies’ and leaving 1% of humans who possessed natural immunity against this man created virus which was supposed to be a cure for cancer. The ones who survived were fed upon by the zombies leaving the place where our doctor lives in completely devoid of any hint of human existence. That’s where he begins his attempts to find a cure while struggling to survive a harsh reality.

“I Am Legend” tells the story of Dr. Neville from his perspective. The story is very methodical as you’ll experience the days of loneliness and loss through Neville’s eyes, whether it is his wife and daughter which are seen through flashbacks of his last moments with them or his day to day struggles in maintaining his humanity. There aren’t a lot of exciting or suspense filled moments because you see and experience everything as Neville experiences them. As his goal is to avoid the infected at all coasts, that’s what you’ll experience too and when he accidentally crosses into the mutant’s territory hiding in the shadows, watching his every move, you’ll finally feel his terror.

The fear factor in some parts of the movie made me hold my breath and wish that the scenes were over with quickly. There were even parts when I felt like my heart is going to drop on the floor and parts where I could feel it beating in my throat lol. I haven’t done that for a long time while watching a movie. But don’t worry, there isn’t any blood and gore in this movie. Just some ugly zombies jumping out of nowhere and moments you’ll find yourself yelling at Neville “RUN, YOU IDIOT. IT’S GETTING DARK. RUNNNNNN FOR YOUR LIFE!” D8. The majority of the movie deals with the psychological aspect of being the only one left alive so this is a much better element than horror. I like psychological themed stories.

I only wish there were more scenes showing how the virus spread and the immediate impact it had on humanity with all the quarantines, evacuation and what happened in the first three years of the outbreak. The parts they did show in the flashbacks were actually fascinating.

Overall, I, enjoyed this movie immensely and I think It was a very well spent 2 hours.
“I Am Legend” is the type of movies you wouldn’t want to watch alone. I know I couldn’t. It just scared the crap out of me.

If you are a fan of continuous action, huge explosions, flying cars, gun fights and such then this movie isn’t for you to watch since it doesn’t deliver on any of these elements. It is an intelligent and realistic portrayal of what it might be like for the last man on earth to exist after a deadly virus has wiped out most of the human population.
I recommend “I Am Legend” for those who can appreciate a movie which tries to depict such a situation realistically. There might be some who are disappointed that this movie doesn’t stick close to the book written by Richard Matheson, but regardless it is smart and intelligent even if a bit slow in the beginning. For me, it was an A+ and I’m definitely going to watch it one more time someday soon.