Wednesday, July 18, 2007

And you thought he was mean when Spicoli trashed his car: "The Last King of Scotland"

Seriously, whenever I see Forest Whitaker start to get too Capital-A Actor, I think of his turn as Charles Jefferson in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." That's right, Mr. Oscar Winner ... and let's not even mention you playing a guy named "Balldozer" in "Vision Quest."

My Reason For Carrying On In This Cruel World and I took this movie with us on a family vacation over the weekend, and let me tell you ... you haven't lived until you've watched a brutal dictator do his thing while the in-laws are sitting on the next couch. Despite that, "The Last King of Scotland" was rather enlightening for me, a guy who knew a little about Idi Amin but couldn't tell you much other than it wasn't a name you wanted to pass on to your kid.

Our story -- inspired by real events, or something like that ... ugh -- follows a young Scotsman (James McAvoy) as he flees to Uganda following medical school. He lands there by chance, and by even more chance, goes from working in a village clinic to being the personal physician of the Ugandan president, General Amin his bad self (Whitaker). At first, this is all right. Amin is magnetic, presidential living is awesome and our hero is loving life. But then death intrudes -- namely the disappearance of anyone who opposes our man Idi, as well as the little problem of genocide across the country. Yeah, that'll take the bloom off the rose.

Even though you know all this will end up badly, the story is told well. Whitaker chews up the Amin role-- first presenting a passionate leader hailed as a hero, then revealing a madman bent on total control. McAvoy, whose character, I guess, is made up, is a good foil -- embracing this charismatic president before realizing he's a few shooters short of a bag of marbles.

I might have wanted to see just a bit more depth to Amin and a little more conflict with the doctor, but those are quibbles. Both actors were solid. Also good were Kerry Washington ("Ray," "The Fantastic Four") as one of Amin's wives, Gillian Anderson -- yeah, where has SHE been? -- as another doctor -- and Simon McBurney as a British diplomat.

"Scotland" isn't a masterpiece by any stretch, but by the final credits it seemed a decent tale with good acting, highlighted by old Forest as Amin. In retrospect, he was pretty easy on Lincoln High after the car wreck a couple of decades ago. I mean, none of those guys got dismembered, right?

3 Comments:

At 11:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You seem to really enjoy Forest Whitaker. Although he will always have a special place in my heart as Charles "Don't f*** with it" Jefferson, Whitaker lost points by recently making repeat appearances on both ER and FX's The Sheild. He played basically the same one-tone sullen character on both, horrible. He made up for it with "Scotland". Sh*t, that's my man.

 
At 1:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think it's time to give a tip of the hat to "Fast Times."

By my count, the movie features 3 best actor winners (Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker, and Nicolas Cage), an academy award winning writer (Cameron Crowe), as well as a young Anthony Edwards and Eric Stoltz, plus classic that-guy Vincent Schiavelli. And that doesn't even inlcude the stars of the movie--Phoebe Cates, the Judge, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

 
At 11:04 PM, Blogger Jefferson said...

Agreed. But, um, hello ... Mr. Hand?

 

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