great Oscar performance

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2007)

Forest Whitaker was very good in this and deserved the awards he won. He looked like the real Amin and I bought him as a brutal dictator. From reading other reviews, the doctor role was fiction and used to tell Amin's dictatorship though rose colored glasses. The doctor sees Amin with his kids at his nice house throwing pool parties. He pretends like he really doesn't know what is going on after hearing reports of people turning up missing in the country. And one of those guys is missing after Nickolas tells Amin he saw him conducting a suspicious meeting at a hotel. Nickolas wasn't exactly someone you root for since he goes after 2 married women and turns a blind eye to some of Amin's business.
The story was entertaining and it didn't even have to show a lot of killings and mass graves that went on during Amin's tenure. There were a couple of scenes for shock value toward the end. One involving arms where legs should be and meat hooks. I had to turn away for that.
FINAL VERDICT: Entertaining, interesting, check it out.