Steven Spielberg is no longer a kid. He isn't making movies like E.T. and Jurassic Park any more. He's making Amistad and Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. While it's good to have some great epic films that touch are minds as well as our hearts...we need some light-hearted fun.
The opening scene is the best of the film and after it, you can pretty much turn the movie off and know the story. Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) claws his way to freedom only for the slave ship he's a captive on to be captured at he and his fellow Africans are put on trial for murder.
Matthew McConaughey is the defender of the Africans and he's all right, but the movie lacks passion and we know how it's going to end. The excitement isn't there. It's predictable. Anthony Hopkins is very good as John Quincy Adams, but he's too little too late. The movie is done after the first ten minutes.
I give Amistad a C.
