Last King of Scotland.

Goodshape

Not going to write a lengthy review, just thought I'd say that this film kicks ass.

Phenomenal performance from Forrest Whittaker - and one that should really be seen in the cinema - plus really solid stuff from everyone else (even Gillian Anderson is very good in her small role).

Interesting story told from a great perspective. Funny, tense, dramatic, thrilling.

Go see it

tba

I agree easily the best film I have seen in a long while.

Rabies

*cough*
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055035494

*Simone*

Agree, good film. But I am a bit biased - I really just wanted to James McAvoy in the nip

Owen

Went to see it last night with herself. Everything was just brilliantly crafted, and the lack of colour on screen really brought me back to the 70's when this movie was set.

Spoiler :
The scene at the end where the main character was hoisted up on meat hooks almost made herself puke

plonk

[spolier] [/spoiler]

enter text between brackets

Owen

Duly noted!

BlitzKrieg

personnally enjoyed the accuracy of:

A recently graduated med student goes abroad to a 3rd world country to *help* them and all he thinks of for 2/3rds of the film is SEX! It is very accurate

johnny_ultimate

Saw it today and thought it was good until it went all Hollywood in the last Act. Really disapointed me after a great opening. Great performances from the two leads, but alas didnt think it lived up to all the praise.

Stargal

Forest Whitaker just won the Best Actor award at tonight's Golden Globes (linky...).

Well-deserved too. I thought he was excellent in this, as was James McAvoy. Didn't think the ending was 'Hollywood';

there would have been no sense of closure if Nicholas had died when he was put up on the meat-hooks. He would have been just another one of Amin's hundreds of thousands of victims. Instead, he got the chance to go back and 'tell the world about him', as the doctor in the hospital advises him, so there's the chance to redeem himself at least partially for all of the morally objectionable things that he did while he was in Uganda. Ok, so it's a little Hollywood, but it wouldn't have been as strong a film if Nicholas had died

*Simone*

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Saw it today and thought it was good until it went all Hollywood in the last Act. Really disapointed me after a great opening. Great performances from the two leads, but alas didnt think it lived up to all the praise.

How was the ending "Hollywood" ? I don't think it was at all. Sure it's based on true events so it told it like it was!

Also Forrest Whittaker really deserved that award. Phenomenal performance.

Goodshape

*Simone* wrote:

Sure it's based on true events so it told it like it was!

Not quite. It's based on events which actually occurred, but James McAvoy's character is entirely fictional, as are a few other characters (the British diplomat for example).

This is 'historical fiction'.

johnny_ultimate

Goodshape wrote:

Not quite. It's based on events which actually occurred, but James McAvoy's character is entirely fictional, as are a few other characters (the British diplomat for example).

This is 'historical fiction'.

Exactly. Im not an expert on Idi Amin, but I'm pretty sure there was no

last minute smuggling onto an airplane with just moments to spare before the minions returned from their wee break to finish the job. In fact, why didn't the minions finish the job in the first place?

Goodshape

Didn't have an issue with the ending myself.

johnny_ultimate

Did anyone else think the soundtrack was really good though? Obscure mixture of tracks, bit really set the tone well.

Roen

A good flick, but a little too far from the book (I suppose they have to to squeeze it into xx mins) for me to be happy with.
Whittaker was great though, well deserving of a Globe.

paddycorry

Very solid movie, and Forest Whitaker was excellent. He's a shoe-in for the Oscar in my book.

Have a longer review written here, but would recommend it. 7/10 from me.

EARMUFFS

Saw this myself at the weekend and was very impressed. McEvoys character was well played. He really was in the wrong place at the wrong time. His naive world view was laughable and his comeuppance totally deserved. Whittakers performance was outstanding. Completely involving and as well totally believable. Like all good characterisations he was likeable and deplorable in equal measures. 2 thumbs up!

Victor

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Exactly. Im not an expert on Idi Amin, but I'm pretty sure there was no

last minute smuggling onto an airplane with just moments to spare before the minions returned from their wee break to finish the job. In fact, why didn't the minions finish the job in the first place?

Union rules.

CtrlSource

Victor wrote:

Union rules.

LOL Though Amin probably wasn't a big fan of unions!

CtrlSource

Hadn't read the book on which the film was based. Although I'd heard parts of it were pure fiction, I didn't know until afterwards

that the Garrigan character was made up. Felt a bit cheated then, because there was so much factual stuff they could have used about Amin, why create a fictional 'montage character' like that?

bjj-fighter

Goodshape wrote:

Not going to write a lengthy review, just thought I'd say that this film kicks ass.

Phenomenal performance from Forrest Whittaker - and one that should really be seen in the cinema - plus really solid stuff from everyone else (even Gillian Anderson is very good in her small role).

Interesting story told from a great perspective. Funny, tense, dramatic, thrilling.

Go see it

That sums the movies up.I thought it was brilliant and Forest Whittaker Stole the show

fade2black

Missed this thread but threw up a review in the reviews forum nonethless.

Victor

I saw it yesterday. It actually comes across quite tamely for most of the film. To put things in context, execution by sledgehammer was not unheard of.

Kintarō Hattori

Saw it at the weekend with the missus. Most definetly well worth going along to see, performances were great throughout the film. Whittaker as has been mentioned was totally engrossing.

97i9y3941

a great movie indeed,another one worth checking out is idi amin:an autoportrait,it was an offical movie about amin himself and starring him aswell,was made in 1974,you see how mad he was in the movie

Vic Vinegar

Fred83 wrote: »

a great movie indeed,another one worth checking out is idi amin:an autoportrait,it was an offical movie about amin himself and starring him aswell,was made in 1974,you see how mad he was in the movie

Wow! really old thread resurrection!

Nice job on the recommendation though... i'll check it out

97i9y3941

its where alot of tv programs for their history/bio progs get their footage of amin from,from that movie itself

Pigman II

Didn't like the way Robert Downey Jr. got criticism for "blacking up" in Tropic Thunder yet not a word was said when Forrest Whittaker does it!