"How about 'Soldier of Fortune'... or is that too much of a cliché? "

Rating: 9/10 (3 February 2007)

It's gotta be said, Leo Di Caprio has the best Agent in Hollywood right now. After a brilliant performance in The Departed, which was also a brilliant film, he keeps the pace with Blood Diamond.
The story is pretty basic -- two African men; Solomen Vandy (black poverity stricken pan handler) & Danny Archer (ex white soldier now diamond smuggler), from opposite ends of society are forced to help each other out, in search of a priceless diamond that was hidden by Solomen -- when the gang he worked for were caught up in the chaos of a civil war skirmish.
Some of this film is beyond gritty, it attempts to portray typical events that occurred in the late 90's Sierra Leone civil war. The angle and the camera shots, the colours, the shock-factor probably stretch further than City of God. If the director wanted the viewer to be gripped, he achieved this.
I'm glad to say for a big-budget, typically marketed movie, it rarely gives any flaws in the script, no cheese, no pointless feel-good humour that is sometimes peppered on a class films such as Ocean's 11, Three Kings, for example -- but maybe they're a bad comparison? The main cast were very believable, Leo's "South Africaaan" accent was spot on, he has become a man. It must have been The Departed that helped shed his boyish charm and allowed him to grow into the league of big players like Robert De Niro, and I'm not exaggerating -- his performance equals a good De Niro film.
The babe of the film -- Jennifer Connolley I think she served this story well. Looks a little like Courtney Cox but healthier, then there's the Solomen character, who we've never heard of; Djimon Hounsou. He was spot on too. The only thing I may have changed, would've been Archer's old mentor  the Colonel. I didn't feel that character was exploited enough. But whatever..
If you've not checked this film out yet, then you almost definitely should.
~Paul Browne.