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| A+ A+ A+ | |
| Review by Xibo | Date seen: August 27, 1999 |
| Viewing Location: Union Square, NYC | Grade: A+ |
| Summary: The best medieval film I've seen in years. | |
| Antonio Banderas plays a foreigner from the arabian lands who happens to join up with a band of northmen in this medieval tale of combat and adventure. He does an excllent job. The story is very well done too, taken from Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead". The story takes place in medieval times, around the 10th century. The sets and costumes are very well done, but what I really enjoyed was the vikings and their combat. If you've ever enjoyed Dungeons & Dragons or similar fare, you'll love this film. There's even a part of the film where they are adventuring in a complex of caves. Excellently executed, with good pacing, and a great score. | |
| C+ C+ C+ | |
| Review by Nightfall | Date seen: August 27, 1999 |
| Viewing Location: theater in Stillwater, with SCA people no less | Grade: C+ |
| Summary: mildly fun if you don't think about it | |
| Short and sweet: Historically, it's errant nonsense. The direction was AWFUL. What was the director trying to accomplish? Total confusion? He succeeded. The dialogue varied from entertaining to baffling, but it beat the direction hands down. EVERYTHING did. Also, did the point of this movie get cut out and left on the floor? It felt like it did. Enough of the Crichton movies, already. | |
| D- D- D- | |
| Review by hughjtoad | Date seen: January 21, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Hawaii | Grade: D- |
| Summary: what the HELL was that | |
| I saw this movie on pay-per-view in a hotel. I never fall asleep while doing anything, including watching movies or tv. I could barely keep my eyes open. This movie was boring, stupid, and WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON? *I* played Dungeons & Dragons, and I know the difference between a good compelling story and a bunch of random dice-rolling - this was the latter. | |
| D- D- D- | |
| Review by sesame | Date seen: January 27, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: hawaii | Grade: D- |
| Summary: hunh? what? wait...was that? hunh? | |
| i'm an easy movie date. pretty much if it has moving pictures and no one hacking up young women on screen, i'm happy. but i spent this whole movie saying, "what? wait...uh? what was that? why did he do that?" i did think the production design and cinematography were nice, and antonio is easy on the eyes, but WHAT ABOUT A SCRIPT? i hypothesized that the pitch was so good, the actors all agreed to do the movie without one -- since 1/3 of the dialogue was unintellible (too quiet, garbled, etc.) and the other 2/3 sounded like highly directed mad-libs. | |
| A A A | |
| Review by Parallel | Date seen: February 15, 2000 |
| Viewing Location: DVD | Grade: A |
| Summary: Great story | |
| Antonio Banderas plays an exiled Arab sent off on an embassadorial mission to the far North country. What impressed me most about this movie was the very fine story. The lead character had his weaknesses and flaws, but he was able to overcome them and play to his strengths. And not just him--his comrades in arms were similarly fleshed out in wonderful detail. The perspective was very faithful to that of the main characters; the audience didn't learn anything too early or too late. Even the opposition to our heroes was fleshed out in great detail. This is one of those movies that is wonderful enough that you walk away from it wishing it were true. | |
| B B B | |
| Review by Z | Date seen: December 14, 2000 |
| Grade: B | |
| Summary: incomprehensibility reigns | |
| Weird Beowulf-like movie with some redeeming spots, but overall kind of generic. | |
| B- B- B- | |
| Review by Jigen | Date seen: January 17, 2003 |
| Viewing Location: Far right cushion - my couch | Grade: B- |
| Summary: Strangely entertaining | |
| So great filmmaking this isn't. For some reason I found it entertaining despite many, many moments wondering what the hell is going on. The director seemed to do a better than average job selling the actors on what script there was and coaxing fairly good performances out of them. It ends right there though. You get some reasonable fights, but I can't quite figure out how many days the story was supposed to span. Were they fighting for a long time? Where did those guys in the black come from and how did they stumble on their sleeping place in the middle of a guarded fort? Huh? Oh, their not in black they're some bear-guys. I would rack this up as a "Schwartzenegger Moment" for Banderas. Reasonable action with marginal storyline. Omar Sharif makes an appearance. Why? | |
| C C C | |
| Review by Serpent | Date seen: February 27, 2006 |
| Grade: C | |
| Summary: | |
"I should put quotes here."