Very, Very Good

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2000)

*possible spoilers if your very picky
First of all, this is a great movie. I believe it to be Spielberg's best, way better then his hugely over-rated movies like ET and Saving Private Ryan.
A lot of people complain about this movie pretty much ending half way through, only to have the Africans put on trial again with the movie dragging its way to a second ending. Hey, get real, complaining about that is pretty petty considering it was probably a little more annoying for the real men who had to be tried for their freedom twice then for you sitting on your ass.
A more reasonable complaints would be that Morgan Freeman is wasted in a role that's a static copy of the roles he always plays. Another problem is the once African taken into the British Navy who translates for them. His style is way too nineties-cool-black-dude, the actor who plays him is not very good and clips of him whispering the captives victory chants and sailing back to Africa with them are unecessary and inaccurate respectively.
That said, the good stuff totally out weighs the bad thanks in large part to Djimon Hounsou who is just really damn good. You will be blown away, enough said. Another guy worth watching is the British Naval Officer who is a dead-cool-hard-ass. He's fun to watch and subtly let's you know that Britain really had a lot of the right ideas at that time, more forward then the US and the rest of Europe. Anthony Hopkins is magical of course, you should expect nothing less from him.
One more thing, watch for the scene where one of the Africans is describing what he has deciphered from pictures in the New Testament to Cinque... it is absolutely stunning.