Movie Wars! "Blood Diamond" Vs. "The New World"

Snooze Alert! Watching The New World (2005) is like watching one long artsy-feely perfume commercial as Colin Farell, Q'orianka Kilcher, and the other cast members whisper, mutter and mumble their way through their thoughts and brief dialogues throughout the entire movie. I honestly could not understand a good fifty percent of what Colin Farrell, playong John Smith, and Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas were whispering, and when I could understand it, I was wishing I couldn't. "Who are you?" they repeatedly ask of each other in their thoughts -- just like a bad perfume commercial.

This is a slow mover of a movies, but if you like, artsy shots, classical music, and hearing people's thought bubbles, this movie might just be for you. It is NOT for me. I found it slow, tedious, and depressing. The New World purports to be about the founding of Jamestown but is really about the incredibly boring thoughts of the principle characters, Two thumbs down. If I had more thumbs, I'd turn them all down.

PG 13. 135 minutes - seemed like forever.

Blood Diamond (2006), set during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, is an excellent movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. This movies about the high cost of diamonds - in lives, warfare, and slavery, is fast-paced, thought-provoking, challenging, and uplifting with just the right blend of adventure, intrigue and social commentary. Diamonds mined in African war zones which are sold to finance the conflicts, underwrite warlords, and bring in money for diamond companies are called "blood diamonds" The movie focuses on Hounsou's character Solomon Vandy, caught by rebels, forced into slavery at a diamond mine, who finds a large pink diamond and hides it. Everyone wants that diamond, and Solomon's enemies -- and his friends -- will stop at nothing to get it.

This film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actor (DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Hounsou). It may be DiCaprio's best work to date. Jennifer Connolly is also excellent as journalist Maddy Bowen. Two thumbs up.

R. 143 minutes

"Blood Diamond" wins!

More Movie Reviews by Kathryn E. Darden