Zulu (2013)

Best movie of this year hands down!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Excellent movie that mixes today's modern South Africa with the story of repression over black people through the apartheid and the way it has left scars in the collective memory.Orlando Bloom plays a excellent role that reminds his family's past and the loneliness of a kid involved in the struggle of liberty. Forest Whitaker plays all his talent as a cop carrying all the sadness of the apartheid, packed of emotion with the exact restraint that brings his character to perfection.This movie is one of the best I have seen in a while, photo, sound, details, all is perfectly balanced between action and emotion.Warmly recommended!

Officers Ali Sokhela (Forest Whitaker) and Brian Epkeen (Orlando Bloom) begin investigating the death of a young woman who has been killed by an illegal drug that has recently been supplied to her. In addition to investigating her death, Sokhela and Epkeen also discover that several black people within the area are also either dying or disappearing in mysterious circumstances. Both officers believe that there is a link between the woman's death and the deaths involving black people and set about trying to establish how all the deaths are connected....Given South Africa's rather turbulent and fraught history regarding its 'race-relations' policy a film like Zulu can either be seen as brave or misguided. As an open-minded person myself I tried to view this film objectively and basically take it for what it is and sadly even going in with this forgiving mind-set I still left feeling rather disappointed....For a start the story is unbearably slow and just isn't that compelling (all this despite the fact that it is possibly interesting when looked upon from a recent historical perspective). I haven't read the book and therefore I can't comment on how the characters are perceived in the original source material, but in this film with Whitaker and Bloom I felt like the screenwriters were attempting to portray their characters similar to Murtagh and Riggs from Lethal Weapon - this is more noticeable with Bloom who is the unhinged, gung-ho police officer with a drink problem. The difference between these two films is that Riggs was better developed in Lethal Weapon in that we at least understand why he behaved the way that he did? Bloom's character shares similar traits, but we're never really given any explanation as to why he is the way that he is? Is it because his marriage broke down? The problematic relationship with his child was badly handled and his constant visits to his ex-wife were distracting and often dragged the story in a direction that it didn't need to go in. All this makes him hard to take to as a character and even harder to like or care about. Forest Whitaker gives another good performance and his character is slightly better developed, but again he isn't a particularly interesting character (the most interesting thing about watching his performance was seeing his Idi Amin accent come out of retirement once more).Once I'd made the analogy between the two cops here and the two cops in Lethal Weapon it only reminded me of how dull this film is in comparison. Whilst it may be set during a rather important period in South Africa's history the film sadly is held back by dull and uninteresting characters, and a story that isn't as compelling as it may seem due to its rather plodding nature.

I was interested enough to watch this movie for several factors, like the cast (Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker), the South African setting, and the fact that the filmmakers were not American - the last two factors promising that the film would feel a lot different than Hollywood product. But to be honest, I kind of felt let down by what I saw. The main problem with the movie is that there is a distinct lack of tension and urgency for the most part. Yes, there is some brutal violence here and there, but otherwise the movie felt kind of soft and slow, and I found it hard to get involved with the story. Also, while the South African backdrop does definitely provide some color and originality, at the same time the movie more often than not feels and looks like a television show. A respectfully budgeted TV show, but a TV show all the same. While I wouldn't immediately say no to watching something else by these same filmmakers, I would hope that they would have learned from their mistakes here.

It's funny (sort of), that after watching this movie, I felt like this could've been a story arc in a really good TV show. You could "exploit" (make this bigger, a season filling thread) and it would still work. Having said that, the corruption theme, the theme of violence is not new. Forrest Whitacker and Orlando Bloom help elevate this movie quite a lot (the depiction of brutality also does, if you are not appalled by it of course).The story is easy to follow, with family problems thrown in for good measure. The back-story and the political themes are woven nicely into it all, without it getting too complex. A really good thriller, that unfortunately did not well at the Box Office.