So much average

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I was aghast at the level of access this female had with everyone in this film. They should make a film about her techniques and her low key style. I was shocked, impressed, and saddened.I guess the relatives of the Rhodes family still have that unique gene to F Africa. After watching "Blood Diamond" and comprehending the "partnership" with first world powers, how could one be that surprised with the events portrayed."I don't care if I shoot myself in the foot, I get paid!" Well, I guess we're supposed to believe that is the long and short of the tale but I somehow doubt it. Manipulating a country with savage methods to destabilize happens everywhere and believing this is endemic to Africa is misleading at best.I watched all those Kayactivists in Seattle to protest the Shell Artic Drilling project and thought why is not one person addressing this issue? The poverty is abject, the ignorance abundant, the evil menacing.I am confused at the USA's proclamation of being the number one exporter of natural gas vs light crude oil. So we will become dependent on Africa now? Perhaps the Bakken Fields of North Dakota were not exploited enough to date for this documentary to hash the list.High recommend for folks who have no clue what is going on in Nigeria and Ghana, and the status of Oil and Gas exploration costs and strategies, and well, the cruel greed lopsided exposure of simple peasants.

Greetings again from the darkness. The best we can hope for from a documentary is that it tells both sides to the story. But what happens when there are even more sides? Director Rachel Boynton expertly presents the perspective of numerous parties trying to secure their fair share (or more) of the first commercial oil field in Ghana … known as Jubilee Field. Her surprising and unprecedented access offers us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what happens when business and politics mix during a clash of cultures.Beginning with spot on quotes concerning greed and special interest – one from economist Milton Friedman and one from the 1948 movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – the movie spans the years of 2007 through 2011 as Dallas-based Kosmos Energy frantically maneuvers to develop this oil find while juggling the Ghana monarchy and government (two administrations), as well as the pressures from venture capitalists and investors Blackstone and Warburg Pincus.Ms. Boynton's access to closed-door meetings and negotiations is fascinating, as are her brief encounters with the local militant rebels (The Deadly Underdogs) on a mission to grab a share of the money – often by cutting the pipelines and starting fires (they want the contracts for clean-up). She interviews oilman Jim Musselman while he is President of Kosmos and he is negotiating with the Ghana government and King, and then again after he is ousted from the company by the Board of Directors who are demanding a quicker return on their investment.The Ghana situation is contrasted to Nigeria, which is currently the 5th largest oil supplier to the United States. The billions in oil profits have not benefited the citizens of Nigeria, who continue to live in harsh poverty. The Ghana government gives every indication they don't want this to be the case with Jubilee Field … even though they have had the same results with gold and cocoa. What we soon learn (though we already knew) is that every party involved, despite the words they speak, really have only their self-interest at the forefront.When the election changes the players in Ghana, we see Kosmos scramble to maintain the agreements and their rights. Outside pressures and investigations add further turmoil and we begin to see that rational thought and fairness are rarely in play. There may be plenty to go around for everyone, but that matters little since everyone employs the "greed is good" approach. The culture clash is undeniable, but greed is the great equalizer.We witness the May 2011 IPO for Kosmos Energy from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and it's a reminder of what a strange world "big money" is on Wall Street, and maybe only the "big men" really understand. Boynton's documentary does everything possible to enlighten the rest of us.

'Money, Power, Greed and Oil' is quite a clever documentary. In a world full of potential villains it doesn't paint any of the people it features in such a light: instead it asks two questions: firstly, what is the proper return on venture capital, and secondly, how can Ghana, a country with recently discovered oil reserves, avoid the fate of Nigeria, where oil has proved a curse, its riches taken by a minority willing to ruin the country in order to obtain them? The film can almost convince you that everyone is genuinely trying to do their best for the country; yet in the conclusion, it seems that all those involved in the business, Americans and Ghanaians alike, have struck it rich, too rich one fears. On one hand, director Rachel Boynton could have made a film about casino capitalism. Instead, she's made a film that's insightful, but leaves the politics to the viewer. I'd like to know the views of an ordinary but educated Ghanaian on the situation; but this is still an interesting film.