Blood Diamond

The New Yorker David Denby

Essentially a romantic adventure story with politics in the background--an old-fashioned movie, I suppose, but exciting and stunningly well made.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Action-adventure pictures have a lamentable tendency toward mindlessness, but Edward Zwick's epic story has numerous virtues apart from suspense and spectacle.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Not that Diamond skimps on the social commentary; far from it. But it makes its points without too much breast-beating, caching its polemic within a tough-minded entertainment.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A visually sumptuous, bullet-train-paced thriller with a really provocative theme.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Blood Diamond is a gem in a season with lots of worthy movies.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Zwick's narrative skills keep us hooked on the story, and the first-rate production values and imaginative use of locations (it was shot in Mozambique) give the film an enthralling scope and epic sweep.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

As strong as Blood Diamond is in its best moments, I wish it had been even harder-edged. DiCaprio is remarkable - his work is almost on par with his performance this year in "The Departed."

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

There are times when his message threatens to overwhelm his story line, and the last 15 minutes or so of Blood Diamond demonstrate what happens when sentimentality wins out over style and grit.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

For its flaws, Blood Diamond is a gem, if only for being an unusually smart, engaged popcorn flick.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Given that the movie doesn't have a single narrative surprise--you always know where it's going and why, commercially speaking, it's going there--it's amazing how good Blood Diamond is. I guess that's the surprise.

Empire Damon Wise

Great performances, provocative ideas and gripping action scenes fall prey to Hollywood logic and pat storytelling in the final hour.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's a solid performance from Leonardo DiCaprio, who has grown into this sort of "gritty" role and is more believable after having been seen dancing on the dark side in "The Departed."

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Blood Diamond is, in the vernacular of Old Hollywood, a rip-roaring adventure, the kind made in the '30s with Clark Gable and the handiest leading lady on contract at MGM.

Slate Dana Stevens

Blood Diamond is a by-the-numbers message picture, to be sure...But the director, Edward Zwick, is craftsman enough that the pace never slackens, the chase scenes thrill, and the battle scenes sicken. And if it makes viewers think twice about buying their sweethearts that hard-won hunk of ice for Christmas, so much the better.

Newsweek David Ansen

Blood Diamond only skims the surface of many important subjects--the script doesn't begin to explain what the civil war was about. But if it opens a few eyes, it will have done its job.

Time Richard Corliss/Richard Schickel

DiCaprio, here as in "The Departed," proves himself the most watchful and watchable actor of his age. Since his teens, he has known how to make moral dilemmas seem both profound and sexy, and at 32 he just keeps getting better.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

There's no use griping about the superfluous white-on-white romance that generates so much dead space in Zwick's movie, for without it Blood Diamond would never have been made. Which would be a pity, for as liberal hand-wringing goes, it's a winner.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

To the unlikely role of a Bogart-esque reluctant hero, Leonardo DiCaprio brings an intensity that compels even when the script falters.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Blood Diamond attempts to be an action thriller with serious political overtones, to be as much position paper as "Zulu Dawn."

Boston Globe Ty Burr

As an entry in the advocacy-entertainment genre, in which glamorous movie stars bring our attention to the plight of the less fortunate, Blood Diamond is superior to 2003's ridiculous "Beyond Borders" while looking strident and obvious next to last year's "The Constant Gardener."

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's earnest, but it feels beside the point. Blood Diamond's real point: box office.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Edward Zwick brings unimpeachable good intentions to his film about the bloody underbelly of the international diamond trade, but when social conscience jockeys for attention with movie-star glamour, glamour always wins. The result is a rip-snorting adventure set against the backdrop of African misery.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

There's an extraordinary subplot in Blood Diamond, sandwiched between a main story meant to arouse outrage and a Hollywood-clumsy finale meant to provoke a standing ovation.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The combination of DiCaprio's soulful, self-effacing work in Scorsese's "The Departed," and this unexpectedly complex portrait in a simple-minded movie, make it the best year of his career since the big boat crash of 1997.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

It's a reasonably entertaining actioner, and Zwick doesn't shy away from depicting violence or the horrors of war, but as a social statement it falls a little short. And emeralds are prettier anyway.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Preachy infotainment that wants to offer thrills, too -- an uneasy hybrid.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Thanks to the redundancy, though, Blood Diamond is dramatically diffuse, and at least 30 minutes too long. Thanks to Mr. DiCaprio's raffishly dashing soldier of fortune, the movie is worth watching all the same.

Variety Brian Lowry

Africa's enduring sorrow is ripe for drama, but Blood Diamond is, finally, a fitting metaphor for the gems: Potentially brilliant from a distance, but upon closer inspection, one likely will see the flaws.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

There is every reason to learn about the link between jewels and death, by all means, but no reason to try to disguise a term paper as entertainment.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

De Beers can relax; the only indignation stirred up by Blood Diamond won't be among those who worry about where their jewelry came from, but with audiences incensed by facile politics and bad storytelling.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

While the film never quite reaches the emotional peaks it so obviously seeks to scale, Zwick's film is still potent enough to save you three months salary.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

While Mr. DiCaprio turns out to be an ideal fit for Blood Diamond, there's an insolvable disconnect between this serious story and the frivolous way it has been told. There is no reason to doubt the filmmakers' sincerity; only their filmmaking.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Much like Zwick's "Glory" and "The Last Samurai," Blood Diamond strives to be an "important" film while stopping well short of being genuinely provocative and artistically chancy.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's part action film, part buddy movie, part love story, part political tract and, in sum, much less: a meandering, preachy, condescending mess that only occasionally bursts into life and even then at such a tepid level that you can hardly call it living.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The one attraction in the picture is DiCaprio's performance: easy yet strong, confident, humorous.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's like watching "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" as remade by "Nightline."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

DiCaprio is terrific, but he can't save this lecture from the shame of using Africa as a vehicle for another white man's redemption.

New York Post Kyle Smith

DiCaprio and Connelly give off the sexual tension of pickled herring.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Director Edward Zwick tried to make a great movie, but somewhere in the process he forgot to make a good one.