A veritable feast of Hollywood clichés.

Rating: 5/10 (13 April 2007)

Crikey, I lost track of them all. Anyone would. Anyone with half a brain anyway. But maybe this movie is made for the knuckle dragging, Idol watching, isolationist segment of the populace. The percentage who can't figure out, even with prompts, where Africa is on the map or how diamonds are mined.
The stony hearted hero with the oh so sad childhood. Check.
The misplaced gal journalist with do-good intentions. Check.
The militaristic, heavily armed,vicious black Africans converted to grinning fools for a photo-op. Check and ouch.
The consistent sighting of a kidnapped child amongst 200,000 other kidnapped children. Check.
The immediate spotting of the kidnapped wife in a camp of a million people. Check.
The escaping unscathed in cars, jeeps, buses, whilst all around die in baths of blood. Check.
The dropping of inconvenient plot threads.Check.
The only survivor in a bombed out village telling us straightfaced that it would be worse if it were oil. Check and huh?
The long slow lingering death scene with GPS phone accessory. Check.
The speedy conversion of star to, yeah, a heart of gold. Check.
The slipping and sliding accent of said star, Aussie anyone? Check.
The escape of the entire black family to England, diamond intact. Check.
The applause at the end for the black man. Check and huh - for what was this applause, there was blood on his diamond, he sold it for a lot, a whole lot of money, he's applauded?
Gratuitous violence all through, bang em up, shoot em down, mud, blood, limbs, heads, bowels. Scattered. Everywhere.Check.
Africa through the lens of Hollywood.
5 out of 10. Djimon Hounsou is worth all 5 points.