Lacks power

Rating: 3/10 (16 February 2007)

This movie really didn't do it for me. I knew going into the movie that Idi Amin was a ruthless dictator, and i left the movie knowing about as much as when i went in. The film completely failed to tell you what was going on in the country, it was touched on, but never really engaged. And this was the same of the whole movie it was great on touching on things but failed to go any deeper.
The film suffers from several flaws. One it is a fiction involving real characters, which always is a dubious mix. Second the main character, the Scot, is unlikeable and unsympathetic. Third the end of the movie has no tension, and is hastily put together. Further the chronology of the movie is completely indecipherable. It apparently takes place over 5 years, but it could be several weeks for all we know.
The movie truly fails in that it fails to tell the story of Amin, or the people he killed. At the end of the movie i didn't feel any emotion at all. In fact if you didn't know any better he just seemed like a generous bloke with a bit of a temper. The film makers needed to do better than this if they are to tackle such a huge subject, and instead of a study on mass murder we are given fluff about a graduate position gone sour.