Jennifer Connelly Movie:

		List Price: $28.99		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 2798 Released: June 5, 2007
		Our Price: $15.25
		Used Price: $9.49
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.

Description of Blood Diamond [Blu-ray]:
Leonardo DiCaprio puts a handsome face on an ugly industry: in parts of Africa, diamond mining fuels civil warfare, killing thousands of innocents and drafting preteen children as vicious soldiers. DiCaprio (The Departed) plays Danny Archer, a white African soldier-turned-diamond-smuggler who gets wind of a large raw jewel found by Solomon Vandy, a native fisherman (Djimon Hounsou, In America) recently escaped from enslavement by a brutal rebel leader. Archer offers a deal: he'll help Vandy find his war-scattered family if Vandy will share the diamond with him. Drawn into this web of exploitation is journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly, Little Children), who agrees to help if Archer will tell her the details of how conflict diamonds make their way into the hands of the corporations who sell them to the Western world. DiCaprio is compelling because he never flinches from Archer's utter ruthlessness; Archer ends up doing the morally justifiable thing, but only because his desperate greed has led him to it. Hounsou and Connelly, though saddled with all the moral and political speeches, rise above the cant and keep the movie's treacherously formulaic plot rooted in human characters. But in the end, the story won't stick with you as much as the dead stillness in the child soldiers' eyes; the horror of African civil strife refuses to be contained by Blood Diamond's uplifting message--and the movie is all the more potent as a result. --Bret Fetzer

Blood Diamond [Blu-ray] Reviews:
I nearly died of boredom
2009-11-28 - Blood Diamond is an amateur, cliche ridden, preachy film.

Unlike other, well done films and documentaries that cover 3rd world exploitation and conflict zones created by the 1st world, Blood Diamond fails to carry any emotionally weight.

The movie is often either sarcastic or sentimental, neither of which make me care about the real world problems or the onscreen characters.

the line 'just pray they don't find oil here' is and example of the way the film pokes fun at mass genocide in Iraq.


I just couldn't care. The movie is predictable, especially the ending.



If you really want to understand why this film is such a pile of garbage, then you need to see 'Darwin's Nightmare'


In fact, Go find 'darwin's nightmare' if you get one thing out of reading this review, it is that you need to watch that film.

The action was intense, but the story was a little sluggish
2009-11-12 - The action is intense, but like the title of the review states... the story is very sluggish. The movie is weak on character development and that is something that is actually odd for an Edward Zwick (Director) movie. I enjoyed Glory and The Last Samurai, but not Blood Diamond.

Best seller ever
2009-11-12 - I got the movie right away in great shape, like new ... I love this movie it has a big message to all the people who are nuts over Diamonds and dont know where they come from or who pays with their lives.. A movie that makes you think !!.. Thanks Again

Good action and story
2009-11-10 - Really good movie that shows some crazy stuff that happens for control of diamonds in africa. A lot of really graphic violence and realistic affects too. It got passed me in the theatres and when it came out on video it was well worth watching

Hard-hitting film disguised as an adventure story
2009-10-23 - Director Edward Zwick ("Glory," "Courage Under Fire," "The Siege," "The Last Samurai") has never been one to shy away from touchy subjects. Nor is he afraid to tackle morally complex material and put his actors and their characters (and for that matter, the audience right along with them) through the emotional gauntlet. He usually makes his points bearable and--against all odds--entertaining by packaging them in action-packed stories. This time around, he shows how the diamond trade affects Sierra Leone and its neighboring nations.

Playing an unscrupulous soldier of fortune who, after living his entire life in Africa, has become a world-class cynic, Leonardo DiCaprio handles a difficult accent quite well and turns in yet another great performance. With the help of a morally-upright father (Djimon Hounsou)--who has been separated from his family by ruthless rebels who kill and brutally maim entire villages at will and either subjugate or brainwash the few remaining survivors into service--and an ambitious journalist (Jennifer Connelly) who wants to expose the rampant corruption she sees in its effects on the people, he makes his way through one hostile territory after another to find a diamond valuable enough to buy his way out of what he aptly calls a God-forsaken place.

Along the way, he sometimes does the right thing because it serves his purpose, but as he goes along, his motives become less and less selfish. Zwick is one of the few directors who could make such a transformation believable. "Blood Diamond" shows off his ability to portray tragic and horrific things without being exploitative and also how hope and redemption are possible and even necessary in even the worst of situations.