The Last King of Scotland
Metascore
74 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
view
per page
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    100
    Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him.
  2. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    100
    Of course no Western director can make a movie about Africa without being accused of colonialism himself, and some critics have faulted The Last King of Scotland for focusing on its white hero as black corpses pile up around him. But although the movie takes place on an international political stage, it's still a drama of individual allegiance.
  3. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    91
    Jumping off from the brilliant novel by Giles Foden and changing a key character entirely, it dramatizes and wrings humor from the way a white Western renegade can view a self-made Third World despot like Amin as a superman blowing fresh air into a fetid atmosphere.
  4. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    90
    The film is phenomenally well directed by Kevin Macdonald and edited by Justine Wright to bring out every bit of scary volatility in the most casual interactions.
  5. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    Forest Whitaker, uncorking the power that he usually holds in check, gives a chilling, bravura performance as Ugandan tyrant Idi Amin, whose bloody regime slaughtered more than 300,000 people. This intelligent, sometimes gruesome thriller is based on a novel by Giles Foden.
  6. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    The Last King of Scotland is a parable shocking in its truth, jolting in its lack of sentimentality, Shakespearean in its vision of the doctor's catastrophic flaw.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    Drawing on a documentary visual style he deftly employed in "One Day in September" and "Touching the Void," director Kevin Macdonald uses McAvoy's boyishness to treat Garrigan's apolitical foolishness as yet another damn mess in one African country's hell.
  8. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    83
    Whitaker is terrifying in a way that we recognize not from old movies but from life.
  9. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    83
    The movie is an extraordinary personal adventure that views everything through the eyes of its hero as it carries him from one apocalyptic situation to another.
  10. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Stina Chyn
    80
    In addition to a very engaging script, Forrest Whitaker and James McAvoy amazingly express the tension and the camaraderie shared by Amin and Garrigan.
  11. Empire
    Reviewed by: Liz Beardsworth
    80
    Both an enthralling examination of a horrific time and an adrenalin-filled thriller full of wry humour.
  12. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    80
    This is a wonderful, horrifying performance: Whitaker doesn't take the easy way out by playing Amin as a killer clown, a treacherous buffoon.
  13. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    Captures the energy and exuberance of a young nation in the throes of optimism and works it into a foreboding frenzy.
  14. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    The film as a whole measures up to Forest Whitaker's performance...one of the great performances of modern movie history.
    All this critic's reviews
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    Macdonald has a fetching feel for the continent, and the movie has a powerful sense of what Africa looks and feels like; you can almost smell it.
  16. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Whitaker is on fire, and as long as he's onscreen, King keeps you riveted.
  17. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    75
    The director is Kevin Macdonald, a documentary filmmaker making his fiction film feature debut. (He won an Oscar for his Munich Olympics hostage chronicle, "One Day in September.")
  18. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    Director Kevin Macdonald, an accomplished maker of documentaries making his feature-film debut, gives The Last King of Scotland the pace and crackle of a thriller, albeit a thriller with substance.
  19. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    The story is fanciful, with grotesquely improbable twists involving the fictional Garrigan (James McAvoy) and one of the dictator's three wives (Kerry Washington). But as Amin, Forest Whitaker's command of the screen is so thorough, so frightening, so ripe with malice that you won't move in your seat for fear of catching his eye.
  20. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Great as Whitaker is in this juicy slab of Oscar bait, Macdonald's movie doesn't have much to offer beyond a pair of stunning performances, propulsive editing, fantastic scenery and the heartbeat rhythms of African music.
  21. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    75
    The supporting cast is uniformly strong, with Simon McBurney standing out as an oily representative of the British foreign service.
  22. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    Forest Whitaker is astoundingly multifaceted and convincing as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. In the performance of his career, he fully inhabits the part of the barbaric and charismatic ruler.
  23. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    Director Kevin Macdonald has fashioned a film that is at times nearly as harrowing as his previous endeavor, "Touching the Void."
  24. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    75
    Whitaker's Amin is the kind of raging lunatic that only an actor who has made a specialty of quiet caginess could pull off so convincingly. It's great, and scary, to see Whitaker turn it up to 11 for once.
  25. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    75
    For Whitaker's performance alone, Last King is a substantial piece of work. Otherwise, the film is estimable but not quite great.
  26. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Howie Movshovitz
    70
    An imaginative and original picture turns conventional as it ends.
  27. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    An adequate thriller redeemed by Forest Whitaker's sensational turn as Idi Amin.
  28. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    70
    Furiously paced, with excellent performances by Forest Whitaker as Amin and James McAvoy as the foolish Scotsman who becomes the leader's personal physician, the film has texture, if not depth and enough intelligence to almost persuade you that it actually has something of note to say.
  29. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    The Last King of Scotland never rises to the standard set by Forest Whitaker's fearless (and fearsome) performance as Idi Amin.
  30. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    In the end, The Last King of Scotland is much better when it plays it cool and amusing than when it tries to ramp up outrage and indignation.
  31. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    70
    Whitaker, in the performance of a lifetime, makes him (Idi Amin) a charismatic madman.
  32. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    67
    The Last King Of Scotland makes a stronger case when it's demonstrating how opulent power-lunches corrupt absolutely.
  33. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jennie Punter
    63
    Unfortunately, despite a committed and lively performance, McAvoy's Scottish doctor is fictional, an amalgam of Amin's "white monkeys."
  34. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    The Last King of Scotland joins the ranks of nightmarish innocents-abroad movies, from "Midnight Express" to "Hostel," where the disillusioned hero fights to return to civility.
  35. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    Besides its title, the movie has retained the book's outline...But the film throws away the point of the book completely.
  36. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    50
    This veteran actor is always great, and it's just a little bit sad that he has to play a big, scary demon for us to sit up and finally take notice.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 95 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 53
  3. Negative: 2 out of 53
  1. EverrettU
    10
    Highly rewarding drama with terrific performances.
  2. Compi24
    9
    "The Last King Of Scotland" is the mostly true story of Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy), a young Scottish physician who travels to Uganda and eventually becomes the personal doctor to the dictator, Idi Amin (Whitaker). Directed by Kevin MacDonald, this movie certainly struck a few dissonant chords with me. I'm not saying the film was bad, in fact I found it "The Last King Of Scotland" to be a very remarkable motion picture. However, it is a deeply disturbing piece that aims to show the audience just how deranged Idi Amin was as Uganda's President. Which brings me to the film's most noteworthy aspect - Forest Whitaker's amazing, Academy-Award Winning turn as Idi Amin himself. Forest Whitaker's performance in "The Last King Of Scotland" is incredibly dynamic because at times I found myself laughing, gasping, and cringing in anger at some of the things that Whitaker did on screen. Some of the stuff that Whitaker's Amin does in this movie is truly frightening and really made me realize just how much of a megalomaniacal sociopath Amin was in real life. In fact there is one moment in this movie (one that I won't fully disclose due to it's grisliness) where I found myself just gaping at my television set - yeah stuff gets pretty grotesque. Obviously, Whitaker rightfully earned the Oscar For Best Actor in 2007. As for James McAvoy, he did a great job in his role as the doctor who just can't seem to escape the madness of Idi Amin, and throughout the movie you really learn to feel for his character. The script, of course, was brilliantly written, as it was adapted from the reportedly excellent Giles Foden novel of the same name. In terms of cinematography, I thought that the film's use of close-up shots on Amin really helped to accentuate his sheer madness and insanity. As for the rest of the camera work everything looks clean and efficient. All in all, I found "The Last King Of Scotland" to be a very remarkable, and disconcerting film that effectively used it's brilliant performances and impressive script to highlight the sheer terror that Idi Amin inflicted upon Uganda and it's people.… Full Review »
  3. avatar16
    8
    Le Dernier Roi d'Ecosse est un film dont on ne sort pas indemne, de part sa noirceur et sa violence. Non pas qu'il soit violent comme tant d'autres films traitant sur les gouvernements et les génocides africains, mais le film reste percutant par son propos. Soit une histoire d'amitié entre le président ougandais de l'époque Idi Amin Dada et son médecin personnel, Nicholas Garrigan. Mais cette amitié va se détériorer quand ce dernier va découvrir la véritable nature du dirigeant. Un film magistralement interprété (impeccable Forest Whitaker), qui évite les scènes de violence (exécutions, massacres...) en les annonçant par les médias ou bien par des extraits très courts. De ce fait, nous découvrons les atrocités en même temps que Nicholas, ces atrocités qui lui étaient cachées comme pour le reste du monde. Un peu surpenant pour son petit côté pop et bon enfant par moment, Le Dernier Roi d'Ecosse est un film puissant!… Full Review »
See all user reviews »