Duration |
1h 41m |
Rating (UK) |
12A |
Source of story |
Very loosely based on abook by Valerio Manfredi |
Writers/Script |
Jez and Tom Butterworth (Story by Carlo Carlei, Peter Rader, Valerio Manfredi) |
Additional Info |
This outing seemed to be edging towards King Arthur, and the film of that name made in 2004 also involved Hadrian’s Wall which, for those who don’t know, was built by the Romans to keep the Scottish tribes out of England, so the Romans never went north of it. |
Director |
Doug Lefler |
Starring |
Colin Firth, Ben Kingley, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd, John Hannah, Iain Glen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rupert Friend, James Cosmo. |
Elevator Pitch |
When Rome is trashed by the Goths, young emperor with his druid mentor are imprisoned on the island of Capri. They are later rescued by his loyal bodyguard, who consist of a roman general, a trio of soldiers and a female eastern warrior, and they all trek to Britain in search of the last remaining loyal legion, which they find to the north of Hadrian’s Wall. They are pursued by a Goth band, and later must face the evil Vortgyn. |
Content |
A lot of major and minor battles, involving bows and arrows, swords, spears and battle axes. The emperor and his guys trek across Europe, mostly shown as lines on a map, there are allusions to Excalibur, since they spend time looking for and finding a special sword and then there’s Hadrian’s Wall and a lot of different castles. Predictably the female warrior snuggles up to the general, and there is a “wet sari” shot, which could have been included ironically. |
A View |
This movie was thought by most of the critics to have been miscast, they were probaby talking about Colin Firth, but no matter how hard the actors tried they were hampered by a pretty turgid script. It looked as if they had been making it up as they went along, so probably give it a miss, or watch it while doing something more exciting. |
Discussion
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