By Debbie Schlussel
Due to a scheduling conflict, I did not screen “Apocalypto” (too busy being “responsible for all the wars in the world”), so my apologies to the many readers who want my take on it. May try to catch it over the weekend. But here are the ones I did see, both of which are equally skip-worthy:
* “The Holiday“–Two words: Chick Flick. Cameron Diaz (horrid actress) and Kate Winslet are two women done wrong by cheating men (are there any other kind in the movies?). Diaz lives in a giant mansion in the Los Angeles area, and Blanchett in a cozy country hamlet outside London. They switch homes through a vacation exchange website. Both meet the sensitive girlie-men of their dreams (Jude Law and Jack Black) and live happily ever after. The end. Sappy beyond belief and waaaaaaay tooooooooo looooooooooooong.

* “Blood Diamond“–Leonardo DiCrapio (no, not a typo; just this site’s name for the hypocritically preachy leftist actor) and Djimon Hounsou play two men in search of a giant pink diamond that will get them away from Sierra Leone diamond mining violence forever. Jennifer Connelly is the do-gooder, liberal American reporter out for the story. Not bad as an action adventure thriller (and both DiCrapio and Hounsou are excellent actors), but not good as far as its far-left, blame America, and whitewash Islam message.
DiCrapio’s Danny Archer is a soldier of fortune/diamond smuggler for the Van De Kaap diamond cartel (which is supposed to be the real-life De Beers diamond cartel). Hounsou is Solomon Vandy, a poor black man from a poor Sierra Leone village raided by the R.U.F. Black guerrillas, who maim, torture, kill, and enslave in the name of diamond profits. Vandy’s young son is kidnapped by the R.U.F. and forced to become a killer for the group.
A good and a bad message from this movie: I reject the movie’s claim that it’s somehow White women’s (read: AMERICAN women’s) fault that Black guerrillas are fighting innocent Blacks in an African country. It’s kind of like the way Israel is blamed whenever Arabs kill other Arabs. And it’s intellectually dishonest. However, the larger message, the good message, is that of a father’s strong love–in the face of torture and death–for his young son. We need more movies with that message.
Also of note is that, while this movie focuses on “blood diamonds” a/k/a “conflict diamonds,” I wonder why it doesn’t focus on the Bin Laden and Qaeda diamond trade. Actually, I don’t wonder. We all know that Hollywood whitewashes the crimes of extremist Islam in favor of blaming Whitey. The movie claims that the “blood diamond”/”conflict diamond” trade has ended, and actually, when it comes to funding Islamic terror, it has NOT ended.
I object to the other Islamic whitewash message at the end of this movie. The chyron on the screen informs us that, now, Sierra Leone is in peace. Oh, really? Tell that to the many victims of Hezbollah-related crimes and terror there, as many Lebanese Hezbos have set up shop in Sierra Leone and control a lot of the goings on there (as they have for some time). You can hardly call it “peace.”
Finally, full disclosure: Although I do not own diamonds (I’m not into the jewelry stuff, as the subject matter of this site should indicate), my uncle’s uncle is Maurice Tempelsman, in the diamond biz and rumored to be the De Beers diamond cartel’s man in the U.S. (He was also Jacqelyn Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’ “escort” and is was rumored to be a CIA agent.) A big-time liberal and Dem fundraiser, he gave money to my campaigns both times I ran for the Michigan House of Representatives (about $1,000 total–I’m probably the only Republican and the only conservative to which he’s ever donated), but I’ve only met the guy once or twice.