94th Worst Movie: I Dreamed of Africa

"I Dreamed of Africa" Starring Kim Bassinger and Daniel Craig
Directed by Hugh Hudson

I Nightmared of Bassinger
By Michele Dillon

Based on a true story, the movie is about a woman and her child along with her new husband living down in Africa and running a Ranch where they have to look out for poachers on their land. I love Africa. I love it's culture, it's animals, it's dancing, and most of the time I like the movies about it as well. In this case however, Africa was basically the background and this women's story, sad as it was, played the main part and was lacking of any adventure or excitement that you might associate with Africa.
I think it all boils down to two things. The script and the acting. I think it is clear that I have a general dislike for Kim Bassinger from my previous blog. I will try not to cloud my judgement with that bias when I talk about how horrible the acting was in this movie. But first the script: basically 2 minutes into the movie we are supposed to believe that Bassinger is in love with this man that she got into a car accident with. It is supposed to be showing a span of a few months but it is so choppy, that trying to believe that this man, who lost his girlfriend/wife in the accident, falls in love so fast with Bassinger almost makes you sick because you feel like he didn't have any time to grieve. The lines are written with no feeling and leaves you confused as to how it went from one scene to another scene, almost like they missed something along the way. But then there were also times where stuff occurred that seemed like it was supposed to be important to the story but it was never mentioned again and never explained. Such as the symbolical egg that contains a message inside of it. Bassinger's husband puts a message inside a giant egg and advises her she has to crack the egg in order to see it. He also says that she will know when the right time will be to open it. From the time it is introduced there are numerous scenes where it shows the egg and it still has not been opened but by the end of the movie, they never reveal if it was opened and if so, what the message was. So why even put it in the movie at all?
Now for the acting; Bassinger delievers her lines with absolutely no feeling. Sure she cries and puts a fake anguished look on her face but I feel absolutely no emotion from anything she ever says. Its like she is a dummy saying the lines her master is giving her. As for everyone else, there wasn't any one reconizable in the film other than Daniel Craig who didn't play a big enough of a part to award any criticism. The kid who plays her son, Liam Aiken, I reconized as being the son in the movie Stepmom. You can't really criticize a child's acting but I will for the lack of not having anyone else to pick on but Bassinger. He was quite annoying actually for being such a cute kid. He was repetitive and even though this is what was given to him, he kept calling his mother "pep" which we, again, get no explanation as to the meaning of this. I could only assume it was another way of saying mom. I can see why this movie was on the list but it also wasn't as bad as the other movies I have watched so far even though I hate Bassinger. However, I wouldn't reccomend to watch it either.