Worth seeing, but the filmmakers might have missed the mark

Rating: 7/10 (12 December 2006)

This movie doesn't change your life in epic ways; however, every time you go to the mall, or see an ad for Kay jewelers or even see the diamond ring of a wealthy woman in a restaurant, you will think of this movie. You will wonder whether or not the diamond in the glass case was smuggled across a border, or whether someone was shot for it or not. You will wonder if it was mined by slave labor, digging through muddy rivers while brainwashed AK-47 wielding children watched, anxious to kill somebody.
What should be noted are the performances. Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is one of the best of his career and is utterly convincing as a South African (by way of Zimbabwe) mercenary who's seen too much bad in Africa to be anything more than an anti-hero. Djimon Hounsou tries hard not to be the black and white character that the script has written for him, and performs well for what he is given. Of note are his devastating emotional outbursts. His screaming truly portrays anger and vanquish, and its quite powerful.
I enjoyed this movie, but there was something not quite right about it. The scenes involving "love interests" have a cheesy oboe tune playing in the background. The scenes of children killing innocent villagers have poignancy and remind me of the seriousness shown in Black Hawk Down when the little boy shot his father trying to kill Twombly. However, the villains seem pretty one-dimensional, and a lot of the action stinks of special effects and Hollywood exaggeration.
Had the film focused more on the devastating effects of the Diamonds-for-arms trade, this movie could've found itself in Oscar territory. However, it pushed too hard to be an action movie, and the moral of the story was pushed out of focus for too long to really be driven home.