The Last King of Scotland (2006)

In the early 1970s Nicholas Garrigan, a young semi-idealistic Scottish doctor, comes to Uganda to assist in a rural hospital. Once there he soon meets up with the new President, Idi Amin, who promises a golden age for the African nation. Garrigan hits it off immediately with the rabid Scotland fan, who soon offers him a senior position in the national health department. The Last King of Scotland has an impressive cast for sure but that ain't enough for it's mindless storyline and really poorly perfomance by McAvoy in a really silly and forgettable role. (0/10)

Forest Whitaker exceeded himself with this performance and, in the reality, he practically made this feature. Even if the story is great, very realistic and violent, without his interpretation wouldn't worth as much. He changed a good story into a great one. You'll have in mind this story and Forest's acting performance all life long.

Forest steals the show. Compelling performance, utterly believable.McAvoy is typically weak when in the company of better actors and this film was no different as he came across as immature and a bit of a ham. Also, Anderson's role was a bit confusing, not sure what she was doing in the film. typically she is quite a strong actor but her character was so limited she did not get a chance to shine.McBurney was also very good along with Washington. Both embraced their characters perfectly and it was good the later part of the movie featured more of them to offset McAvoy.The story was great and the cinematography outstanding. Pace was spot on as was the sense of imminent menace.If you have the opportunity to watch this on a home cinema projector sized screen, you will be thoroughly rewarded.Visually stunning film with sense of peril supported by outstanding acting, except for McAvoy. Robert Carlyle would have been better choice.

Director Kevin Macdonald dives headfirst into a committed style of Hollywood documentary visual style. Something that he is comfortable with as seen in "One Day in September" and "Touching the Void. " McAvoy's boyish acting enhances Garrigan's apolitical foolishness and naivety. It reminds me of the Shakespearean style of story in relation to the doctor's catastrophic failings. On a dramatization note, The acting by Forest Whitaker was exceptional and well deserved for an Oscar. He is astoundingly multifaceted and convincing in his role and you can always feel the emotional response on screen, in real life. I think it carried well and although it was well done there were some unneeded sexual scenes that seemed to have little to no relevance and reason to be in the film. The reason i titled it unexceptional was because there was a sense of amateur production that was carried by the acting and story line. It didn't have the whole picture and even the story didn't unravel with completely conclusive results. Overall, I probably wouldn't watch this again. I would like to see maybe the same story line but done much more seriously.