More Catching Up -- Rhinotainment

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Blood Diamond is based on the true life tales of murder and genocide that takes place in areas of Africa over raw diamonds. The movie makes the case that many of the diamonds that are owned by consumers all over the world made their way to the consumers fingers, ears or necks by way of bloodshed. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a diamond hunter who gets caught up with a father, played by the always excellent Djimon Honsou, whose family is taken away from him and whose son is turned into a child militant, killing in the name of diamonds and greed. Excellent acting and fantastic action highlight the film but the script, in a word, blows. Aside from cheesy one-liners and trite dialogue, there are also some timeline gaffes as well. For instance, and this may be nitpicky, but the film is supposed to take place in the Bill Clinton era yet Leo has a line about "bling-bling." It may be nitpicky but it's also sloppy writing.

Forrest Whitaker won an Oscar for playing the genocidal dictator, Idi Amin, in this harrowing biopic. You've read all the reviews and heard all the hype and it's essentially true. There's not much I can add to it. Whitaker is great but I think this role is what has so far capped a great career of acting and he finally got his Oscar. Hopefully he runs with it and continues to do great work. You know, like Cuba Gooding, Jr. did!

This is an extremely low budget comedy/drama set in the 70's surrounding a clique of friends who are career clamdiggers. It hits a lot of familiar subjects such as embracing adulthood, dysfunctional relationships between a father and son, a brother and sister, and a husband and wife, corporations taking down the little man and death. Featuring great acting by the always reliable Paul Rudd, Ron Eldard, Maura Tierney, and written and directed by The State alumnus Ken Marino, this is nothing you haven't seen before but it's still enjoyable and sentimental. The dialogue is poignant and funny and is deemed an ode to Marino's father. As Hugh Jazz once said to me in what was, at the time, a moment of embarrassment, "You can't beat the sentimental moments." He's absolutely right and I was wrong for being embarrassed. If I've just lost you, then feel free to move along.

Sometimes you have to applaud the nerve and audacity it can take to greenlight a movie based on it's content. In this case I'm giving it a standing ovation. This film is about a woman who, in a collegiate moment of extreme boredom . . . um, er . . . orally satisfies her dog. Read that again if you have to. She vows to herself never to tell a soul until she meets the man of her dreams. In a private moment they begin talking about the craziest thing they've ever done. Thinking he will understand, she tells him and he has the obvious reaction. Then her family finds out about it. It's the worst possible scenario for, well, anyone. The remainder of the film is this lady finding the balance in her life between this moment of unexcusable stupidity and finding someone who will accept her for her faults. It's actually quite provocative. If I told you that it was written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, would it make more sense to you? Challenge yourself and see this one.

This is one documentary that I have been just yearning to see since hearing about it over a year ago. Jim Jones was a Civil Rights era "preacher" that appealed to the hippies, African Americans and homosexuals and ensured them that God loved them all and that there should be one united country no matter your race, creed or sexual orientation. Great message, right? Absolutely! So he took this message and created a commune that eventually strayed from the orignial message and segued into brainwashing, sexual misconduct, entraptment and eventually mass suicide. The documentary culminates with a chilling audio recording of Jones leading this flock of over 900 to drink poisoned Kool-Aid. The sounds of parents crying as they force their children to drink the toxic punch will stay with you. This is simply a fantastic yet deeply troubling documentary.

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