TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

csg-48439 I don't know how these gooses end up as presidents, but it happens way too often. Anyway I laughed at the rubbish that comes out of amin's mouth, whenever he makes a mistake, he asks some British dude how to make himself look less ridiculous. Senseless killings, cannibalism, it's all there to see, worth watching, you would laugh more if this was fiction, knowing these atrocities actually happened makes it more of a somber affair. the main actor played idi amin well and kept me motivated to finish this monstrosity of a movie, being history, this is worth watching and if it helps i found it on youtube in VHS quality which made me go way back in time. I won't be watching a rerun, that's for sure.

Michael A. Martinez Really, having always been a big history buff I've long been fascinated by Idi Amin, quite possibly one of the strangest figures of the 20th century; a common criminal, a ruthless dictator, a murderer of millions, and a really flat-out insane yet lovably charming idiotic megalomaniac. This movie had been on my radar for years but was just too hard to find. However I must say "thank you very much" to the wonderful world of grindhouse cinema for finally making this film available to me.Just watching the first 2 minutes I already knew this movie was going to be good. However, I just did not expect it to be so funny. Amin's atrocities are played up to maximum effect of the time, but in a way so dated, low-budget, and trying-to-be-serious that it slingshots its way into morbid hilarity. Exacerbating this is the pacing, which never stops to worry about things like "character development" or "plot" but just zips along from horror to horror filling in the vague historical details with lots of violence and lurid sex thrown in for good measure.AMIN: RISE AND FALL is certainly not perfect. It's cheap and rather flatly directed but the cinematography and editing are certainly serviceable. Acting is literally all over the map with a lot of the extras just goofing around (check out the Amin supporter who he awards the Indian shop to) and a lot of others really trying hard to make this thing a powerful event picture. Mismatched stock footage and strangeness abound, but it all sort of fits in with the goofy grindhouse exploitation experience of the whole thing.The actor portraying Amin does it with such gusto that it's hard to remember you're not watching a cartoon character but actually a realistic portrayal of a historical madman. It makes the experience of watching this film even more emotionally complex, realizing all this insanity actually happened, hundreds of thousands of innocent people died, and the economy of the country was ruined all on account of this lunatic. To top it all off he totally got away with it all and escaped to live out his days as a wealthy man in Saudi Arabia! What's just mind-boggling is that so many others just stood around and partook in the madness. What were those crookedly complicit Ugandan generals all thinking when he started awarding medals to his six-year-old son or ordering bombs to be dropped next to his own wedding? AMIN: RISE AND FALL is sleazy as all hell but certainly no disappointment for fans of this sort of thing. It would fit in well on a double or triple bill with Africa ADDIO or GOODBYE UNCLE TOM.

haythalk After watching 'The Last King of Scotland' last year, I became quite interested in finding out more about the madman that was Amin. I soon discovered that they had made a film in the early 80's and managed to watch a trailer on youtube. I immediately thought this would be a great movie to watch - not necessarily because it was well-acted or directed - but because it had that cheesy,crappy quality..so crap it's good sort of thing!So finally - and thanks to the wonders of youtube, i managed to watch the movie. It certainly lived up to my expectations. The movie does accurately portray the timeline of his regime and certainly gives you a sense of the terrible conditions people had to endure under his rule. When Amin appears on screen, he just seems to do one terrible thing after another - the movie does seem to be strung together by scene after scene of Amin shouting maniacally about cutting heads off/kicking out asians/shooting the archbishop/liking Hitler/eating human flesh etc etc...all makes for entertaining viewing I have to say..but then you have to bare in mind that this tyrant was real..so we must never forget that. Some notable quotes "No-one mess with Big Daddy!" "This is what happen to bad mommies" "i Like Hitler,i put statue of him in kampala" "i am sex champion" "for an African,you have gone very white!" "you call uganda money sh*t money!"In summary, definitely an exploitation film BUT does portray the man as the evil villain he was.

gormanster I watched this film a while ago now, and to me it plays more like an 80's action film than a genuine historical account of what went on during Amin's reign in Uganda. It's the way the film was paced, that leads a viewer to this impression. The film focuses only on Amin's reign in Uganda and not his early life, or how he came to be one of the worst dictators in history.However, I will say this, Joseph Olita, the actor who is playing Amin is very, very believable as the dictator. He steals every scene he is in, because of his remarkable physical resemblance to Amin. The scene where he orders the group of school children to observe the aftermath of the execution of one of his wives is a prime example of the genuine air of menace than Olita manages to convey.The film also captures much of the madness that was Amin. Whether he is awarding his young son Uganda's highest military Honor's, or consulting a witch doctor to determine who is plotting against him and then ordering the massacre of several tribes based on such advice is hard to fathom happening in the real world; but of course all available evidence said it did.So in summary, I guess this film is best enjoyed as an account of some of the horrors that took place in Uganda during Amin's reign. It doesn't provide any real insight in Amin, but that's not necessary a bad thing. Any insights into why Amin did what he did must be inferred because of the craziness of this man, and this film does a fairly good job of capturing some of that craziness.