Lawbolisted Powerful

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

kghosh13 I do not think that there is anything new to add to the reviews that are already here. This film is brutally honest and so it is not an easy watch. Lets say it is not "Imagination TV" it is as real as the war in some parts of Africa is. The depiction is so true to real life that you will either dislike the film from the very beginning or you will be glued to the story of Agu. Like many who have seen this film, I too am surprised that the Oscars snubbed this gem of a film.

Michael Ledo Agu (Abraham Attah) is a young lad growing up in impoverished western Africa. He lives a somewhat idyllic life under the circumstances. The film builds his family life in the background involving a war zone between the army and rebels. Through a series of circumstances, the army kills his kinsmen and Agu manages to escape and reluctantly joins forces with the rebels and vows revenge. Agu has some first person narrative. He struggles with cultic aspects of the rebel army and battalion leader. He discovers they have no respect for life, but he has no alternative and curses the sun for shining on him. He realizes with death all around him, he has been robbed of his childhood, perhaps with thoughts and language well beyond his years. This is not a story of hope or despair. It is a drama about life, a life that doesn't have a Hollywood ending or twist. Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. English subtitles in places. I would recommend watching the film with the subtitles as the English is difficult to understand at times.

keelhaul-80856 I was wavering on rating this film 6 or 7. It had the potential to be a 9 or 10, and based on all the hype and netflix trailers, I hoped that it would be.There are plenty of brutal and heart-wrenching moments, and Idris Elba is a talented actor that I enjoyed as the warlord molding the kid army. However, I feel that there is some confusion and missing holes in this film, that somehow leave it disjointed. It seems to slow down half- way through, and missed out on designing a more powerful narrative and explanation for many of the things going on. In the end, it comes across as an overly-long war film, that just portrays the same things that many already know or believe about African war zones. I thought Blood Diamond did more to explain situations and build characters, while giving a greater understanding of the situation. There are some good character developments, as the boy becomes desensitized to violence and insanity around him, and some entertaining and intense moments, but it just doesn't match the exquisite film-making of other films on such subjects, or war films in general.I felt lost and kind of bored throughout the last half of the film, and found myself distracted and eating snacks, about to doze off for an afternoon nap. It needs something more!!!

Renae Conklin Beasts of No Nation is a drama war film made in 2015 was about a small town in Western Africa, where a civil war broke out by military rebels, take control of the town, and kill the people of the town because they thought they were rebellion. A young boy, Agu played by Abraham Attah is escaping with his brother. When his brother is shot, and killed by the military. After running through the jungle, Agu, a good native boy, encounters Commandant, played by Idris Elba, a NDF or Native Defense Force who takes Agu under his wing to be a soldier in his militia. Agu is joined by another native boy, Strika played by Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye. And after a rough initiation, both boys join the militia. Commandant, not such a great guy, calls for Agu to go to his quarters, where he rapes Agu. Preacher, played by Teibu Owusu Acheampong, knows of what happened to Agu and gives Agu brown-brown, a mix of cocaine and gunpowder, smeared in a wound to "lift" his spirits. Agu and Strika are lead into many bloody ambushes and fights to take over towns by killing the people of villages that they come across. Commandant takes his battalion to the Supreme Commander of the NDF because Commandant thinks he's being promoted but only to find out that he is being demoted to a staff position and his Lieutenant is actually going to be in charge. Commandant decides to take his battalion to brothel to have fun but things go horribly wrong. One of the women shoot the Lieutenant by "accident". But Commandant doesn't believe the woman and has a shootout in the brothel, killing all the women and then running. The battalion is now running from their own militia, UN, and the government. They were fighting airstrikes and ambushes, Strika is killed during the ambush. The battalion now taking cover at a gold mine. Leaving them with no ammunition to be able to defend themselves, Preacher who now is the Lieutenant speaks up and says if they don't turn themselves into the UN will starve to death or be killed. Commandant doesn't want to do this but ends up letting them go after Agu speaks up. Shortly after they leave Commandant, they are captured by troops who take the young fighters to a missionary school. Agu not mingling with the other children and having nightmares from his ordeal, is reluctant to talk to his counselor because he is afraid his counselor will think he is a "beast" because of all the bad things he has done. Instead he decides to tell the counselor about his life as a good boy and how much his family loved him. After talking to the counselor, he found peace enough to mingle with the other children by going swimming. This film used lighting and music to bring out the strong feelings of this movie. The sound effects make this an action-packed film, that leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat