I saw Blood Diamond back when it came out December 8th, and I was very impressed. I was disappointed initially in the ending (dont want to spoil, but you know what I mean right?). But afterwhile I came to accept it as part of the statement, plus it was heroic at least, not ignominious like another movie he was in this year.
I have not talked to anyone yet who hasnt liked it actually, which makes me wonder why it is basically an abject failure at the BO. $100+ million dollar movie and it is gonna barely break $30 million.
A little "conspiracy theory" of mine is that the Diamond industry talked to some of their friends in Hollywood and had it sabotaged to a degree.
What I mean by this is that it is a rare thing for a $100 million movie to not even get a 2000 theater release.
Movies like Eragon are released in over 3000 theaters, and about any Big movie anymore is right around there, at least over 2500, but BD was released in only 1900 theaters.
BIG movie, with a huge actor like Dicaprio gets a fairly mediocre marketing campaign and a limited release. Movie was setup to fail I felt and it did.
I think the Diamond industry was scared of Leo, knowing what a huge draw he can be (5 of his last 6 movies have been big hits the exception being The Beach, dating back to Titanic). Not to mention his immense popularity among female movie goers.
Movies fail all the time, but crappy movies with "big flop" written all over them get a 2500 theater release every other week, why not a big movie with a big actor? It wasnt even overly long, only 2 hours 15 minutes. (Apocalypto came out the same weekend with 800 more theaters and it is a longer movie, not to mention it had Mel Gibson's bad publicity bringing it down).
Regardless, I liked the movie quite a bit and will be purchasing it when it releases to DVD, which wont be long probably since it failed at the BO.
This continues Dicaprio's recent string of great performances though. Didnt like the guy a lick in the 90's, now I look forward to each new movie he is in. Loved Catch Me in the Can, Gangs of NY, The Aviator, and I really liked his character in The Departed a lot (hell liked the first 2 hours 20 minutes of the movie a LOT, just felt as if someone gut punched me at the end so it soured me on the experience).
Looking forward to his next roles: Supposed to be playing Peter Chancellor in the Chancellor Manuscript based on a Ludlum (Bourne Identity writer) novel, as well as playing young Teddy Roosevelt in Scorcese's next project.
Leo, Christian Bale and Ed Norton are the three actors working right now that can bring me out to the theaters even if I am not overly interested in the movies they are in, I trust those guys to deliver great performances at the very least (such as Bale in Harsh Times, mediocre movie, strong performance from Bale and a good "statement" movie, if not overly entertaining).