Tuesday, April 17, 2007

I finally had the time for a DVD so I watched "Blood Diamond" last night. What a fantastic movie. I have to say, I really like Leonardo DiCaprio, and have since he entered into films - "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "This Boys Life," "The Basketball Diaries." I think he's done a really good job of picking the right projects for himself. Everyone does some movies that don't do well, but in general, he's really lucked out. This film is no exception. He's brilliant as the tragically flawed hero, diamond smuggler Danny Archer. He got a lot of flack for the accent he used in playing this role, but I think it came off rather believable, much more so than if he had played it with his American accent. Djimon Hounsou shines again as he did in "Amistad," as does Jennifer Connelly as journalist Maddy Bowen. I found the story fascinating and tragic, considering the amount of truth to the back story, especially the accounts of constant conflict in that part of Africa and the use of child soldiers in combat.

The song of the day is "Ballroom Blitz" by Krokus off their 1986 album The Blitz. Don't ask me why. I could have gone the rest of my life without ever remembering Krokus, but something made me think of them the other day and now I have this song stuck in my head. I was never into them, but I had a friend who was completely into New Wave who, inexplicably, owned this tape and played it over and over again. I was shocked when I looked them up on Wikipedia and saw how many albums they've released. I always thought they were a bit of a one hit wonder.

3 Comments:

Blogger NB said...

Blood Diamond was amazing as was Leonardo. His accent was very believable. It really kept me rivited in place for the enitre movie even if I did have to cover my eyes on more than one occasion, especially when they were training the young boys with the automatic weapons. I admit I cried , as did everyone in the theater.

8:17 AM  
Blogger Diane said...

Thanks for the remider to add to this my netflix queue

9:41 AM  
Blogger LA said...

Damn, you got preempted!

Is that the same Ballroom Blitz as by Sweet?

10:37 PM  

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