Review: Blood Diamond

UK release date: 26th January

A mercenary Zimbabwean diamond smuggler might seem a stretch for the once impossibly baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio, but this thought-provoking action thriller offers a superb showcase for his growing talents, despite an occasional lapse into Hollywood sentiment.

For a time it seems the film will be as good as DiCaprio, starting with the surprisingly savage opening scenes of a tiny fishing community being torn apart by guerrillas in war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s. A wonderfully low-key Djimon Hounsou plays survivor Solomon Vandy, whose discovery of a rare and priceless stone while working in the diamond fields attracts the attention of chancer Danny Archer (DiCaprio). Archer agrees to help Vandy find the family from which he was taken in return for recovering the diamond from its hiding place and, along with a crusading journalist (an effective Jennifer Connelly), they set off on a perilous quest.

Unfortunately, it’s here that a once provocative, uncomfortable film turns into a predictable and disappointing morality tale that does a sad disservice to its impeccable players.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 143mins

Review by Damon Wise

News: Leonardo DiCaprio

Up for the Best Actor Oscar for his work on this week’s Blood Diamond, DiCaprio is continuing his recent trend for tip-top performances in major movies, and beginning to well and truly shake off his late-90s useless pretty-boy image. If all goes according to plan he could be up for another Oscar nod for his fourth team-up with director Martin Scorsese, playing the titular future US President in biopic The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. With a backdrop of late-19th century New York politics and the Spanish-American War of 1898, it sounds like it has all the epic scope Scorsese will need to produce yet another film the Academy will find some excuse to overlook, and all the drama to allow Leo to run wild. It’d due 2008.

In the meantime, DiCaprio is also signed to star in Blink, based on a series of short stories about how first impressions
affect people’s judgement, for Syriana writer/director Steven Gaghan, which sounds both interesting and promising, and looks all set to start his own action franchise by taking on the mantle of Peter Chancellor in the big screen adaptation of Robert “The Bourne Identity” Ludum’s political thriller The Chancellor Manuscript. Looks rather like DiCaprio is going from strength to strength at the moment.

2007 – a movie preview

A small selection of some of the potential highlights of the coming twelve months – by no means an exhaustive selection, but ones we’re looking forward to…

eta 12th January – The Last King of Scotland – at last a proper release for the film everyone raved about at the London Film Festival back in November. Forest Whitaker does Idi Amin in a tale of dictatorship and disillusionment, based on the prize-winning novel by journalist Giles Foden.

eta 26th January – Blood Diamond – Leonardo DiCaprio makes another bid for an Oscar as diamond smuggler teaming up with Djimon Hounsou’s poor local in a bid for a rare pink diamond amidst civil war-torn Sierra Leone. Political, topical – and coming out over here just a month before the Oscars…

eta 16th February – Hot Fuzz – Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg team up once more after the success of Shawn of the Dead and superb sitcom Spaced, this time with a spoof cop movie. Set in rural Somerset… How could this be anything other than genius?

eta 23rd February – The Good Shepherd – This Robert De Niro-directed tale of the birth of the CIA, with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie (as well as Bob himself), looks set to be packed with political intrigue – much of which may well be relevant to our own times…

eta 23rd February – Letters From Iwo Jima – The second part of Clint Eastwood’s World War Two epic, this time the Japanese side of the story. By all accounts a far better film than Flags of Our Fathers, the American side of the tale that’s currently on release.

eta 9th March – The Good German – Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney team up yet again, this time for a noirish tale of intrigue set at the close of World War Two, with Tobey Maguire and Cate Blanchett in support. Initial reports from the other side of the Atlantic are that it’s not as good as it should be, but we still can’t wait to see for ourselves.

eta 30th March – 300 – Another overly stylised adaptation of a Frank Miller comic book after the success of Sin City, this time set in Ancient Greece (well, Sparta, to be precise). Looks like it should be visually stunning, but will it hold up as a film?

eta 27th April – Takeshis’ –  Japanese icon “Beat” Takeshi Kitano does his own version of Being John Malkovich as, playing himself, he happens across a lookalike. For fans of the cult actor, this could be something rather special, especially as it shows a side of the guy rarely seen outside of his Japanese TV appearances.

eta 4th May – Spider-Man 3 – Spidey goes evil (or does he?), so looks to build on the success of the first two in this top-notch franchise with yet another darker turn. Top stuff – especially for comics geeks who know who/what Venom is…

eta 25th May – Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End – Finally, a decnt conclusion to Dead Man’s Chest. Hopefully… Either way, another chance to see Johnny Depp do his thing, so hurrah!

eta 8th June – Ocean’s Thirteen – Yes, we know what you’re thinking – Ocean’s Twelve was horrendous. The good thing is, everyone involved seems to have realised, and have promised that this next outing is going to be the film the last one should have been. With Al Pacino added to the already star-studded cast, let’s hope they get it right this time…

eta 29th June – Shrek the Third – the team are all back, and what more could you want? Bound to be a crowd-pleaser.

eta 13th July – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix –  The films have been getting progressively better as the series has progressed, though whether new director David Yates – best known for his TV work, including the tip-top political drama State of Play – will be able to continue the trend is anyone’s guess…

eta 27th July – Transformers – Yes, a live-action version of that 80s toy classic. Giant robots beating each other up for two hours? How could you not be interested? Oh, yes – it’s directed by Michael Bay, the man responsible for the likes of The Island and Pearl Harbor… But even so – giant robots!

eta 27th July – The Simpsons Movie –  Eighteen years after the funny yellow family hit the small screen, they finally make it to the big. Will they make the transition though? Fingers crossed, eh?

eta 3rd August – The Bourne Ultimatum –  The third in the insanely good spy series looks all set to be just as good as the last two, with Paul Greengrass returning as director and Matt Damon set to do his thing once again as the amnesiac spook still trying to uncover his murky past.

eta 26th October – The Golden Age –  Nine years on, a sequel to director Shekhar Kapur’s magnificent historical biopic Elizabeth, reuniting much of the original cast to explore the relationship of an older Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) and the adventurous hero/pirate Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). Should be superb.

eta 9th November – American Gangster – Sir Ridley Scott teams up once again with Russell Crowe, with Denzel Washington also in the mix, in this 1970s-set drug-running thriller. Could be an overdue return to form for Scott after recent lacklustre outings.

eta 30th November – Beowulf – Ray Winstone stars in this epic version of the Dark Age classic, adapted by comic book favourite Neil Gaiman, and with a pretty damned impressive supporting cast. Potentially a new (one film) Lord of the Rings…

eta ? – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Brad Pitt stars as near-legendary gunslinger Jesse James in this much-anticipated second feature from Andrew Dominik, who brought us 2000’s compelling (if occasionally horrifying) Chopper.

And then, of course, in 2008 we have Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd,  Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo IV, comic book adaptation Iron Man and the next Bond film to look forward to, amongst others.

So then, what are you looking forward to the most?

News: Djimon Hounsou

Next up for Hounsou, in cinemas this week in Eragon, is Blood Diamond – a tale of African diamond smuggling that’s hotly tipped for Oscar glory. Hounsou himself has already won an award or two for his performance, and some are tipping co-star Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor at the Academy Awards in February. It’s due out in the UK on 26th January 2007.

Despite all this success, Hounsou so far only has one other film in the pipeline, The Trunk, in which he’ll play a young pianist from the ghetto, desperate to get out but held backby his friends. It’s rather low budget, and seems likely to do little business. But who knows? If Oscar comes calling for Blood Diamond, anything could happen…

News: Jennifer Connelly

Though playing very much second fiddle ot Kate Winslet’s Oscar-tipped lead performance in this week’s tale of infidelity that is Little Children, former Oscar-nominee Jennifer Connelly will soon be back on our screens in yet more heavy-hitting dramas.

First up is the much-anticipated Blood Diamond, an action-packed exploration of the evils of the African diamond trade starring Leonardo DiCaprio and fellow former Oscar-nominee Djimon Hounsou, hotly tipped again this year for his turn as a poor fisherman who hooks up with DiCaprio’s mercenary in pursuit of a rare pink diamond. It is due out in the UK at the end of January 2007.

Next will be another potential Oscar contender from Hotel Rwanda writer/director Terry George, Reservation Road. Based on the bestselling novel by John Burnham Schwartz, it revolves around the hit-and-run death of a young boy (road accidents seemingly popular after last year’s Oscar success of the similarly-themed Crash), and the fall-out experienced by his flawed friends and family. Connelly will be joined by a top-notch cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Mira Sorvino, all arguably due for a little golden naked man to put on the mantlepiece.

Review: The Departed

UK Release: 6th October 2006

After a run of solid, adventurous, but ultimately underwhelming efforts (Gangs of New York, The Aviator), The Departed finds director Martin Scorsese returning to more familiar form with a superior, Boston-set cops-and-gangsters story, based on the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs.

Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to go deep undercover to help catch local Mafia godfather Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, Costello has groomed Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) since puberty to be his spy on the force. The complex script (fluently adapted by William Monahan) rotates around these two moles, who orbit each other like twin suns for most of the movie, but only meet in the third act.

It all makes for extremely watchable entertainment. The leads are luminous (especially Nicholson, doing his best work in years here), but supporting players Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone all steal scenes with glee.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 18
Running time 151mins

Review by Leslie Felperin

News: Leonardo DiCaprio

The Departed‘s star, as well as teaming up again with director Martin Scorsese for historical biopic The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, has already finished shooting Blood Diamond for The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick. Starring alongside Djimon Hounsou (already tipped for an Oscar for his work on the film) and Jennifer Connelly, Leo plays a mercenary in civil war-torn Seirra Leone who teams up with Hounsou’s humble fisherman for a priceless pink diamond.

DiCaprio has also been attached to the next project from Syriana writer/director Stephen Gaghan, Blink, based on Gaghan’s own book of short stories about first impressions and snap judgements. Less cerebrally, Leo is also linked with a possible forthcoming adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s political thriller The Chancellor Manuscript.

News: Martin Scorsese

The Departed director Martin Scorsese has announced two new projects, both of which have the potential to win him his long-overdue Oscar, but is currently co-directing an as-yet untitled documentary on – perhaps inspired by his plane-packed The Aviator – the Airbus passenger aircraft.

Of his two announced movie projects, one – Silence – will be set in 17th century Japan, following two Catholic missionaries forced to hide their faith, based on the classic 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo. The other, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, will see Scorsese team up once again with his new favourite leading man for a late 19th century period piece, as Leonardo DiCaprio tackles the early years of the future American President.