daveydave

I missed this film first time round, and having watched it this afternoon I'm wondering why. A simple story about a robot (both iron and giant) arriving on earth and befriending a young boy. Stories and rumours start to fly around, especially when cars and other metal objects appear to have large bite marks out of them. In a similar fashion to ET, the government arrives to get to the bottom of things. Once the cause of these occurrences has been identified, the army arrives en-masse and reverts to a fairly typical approach: we don't know what it is, so let's smash it. I won't go into details of the final stages of the story, but of course everything turns out pretty well in the end. As a non-Japanese animated feature people may dismiss this film as one for the kids, but this would be a mistake. It's a wonderful, heart-warming film. References: The Iron Giant on IMDB

Idi Amin was a dictator, a mass-murderer and a nutter. Forest Whitaker is an actor, an excellent one and nails Amin's character beautifully. This is an interesting story, a mix of fact: the Amin is a nutter bit; and fiction: the young Scot, Nicholas Garrigan, becoming the dictator's personal physician. Garrigan accidentaly lands the role of personal doctor to Amin and initially can't believe his luck. Amin seems like a joy to work for, gifting him an nice home and Mercedes convertible. As time passes however, and Garrigan becomes closer to the dictator, he realises what the man is capable of. Too late. Whitaker is truley brilliant in the role of Amin and a very strong cast backs him up all the way. It is very well directed at a hectic pace at times, making this a thoroughly watchable film. It doesn't go into great detail on what Amin was responsible for during his time in power, so this is no Hotel Rwanda, but a definite must-see nonetheless. References: The Last Ki