| Warring Religious Nuts |
|
| written by talltale |
October 4, 2005 - 9:26 AM PDT |
|
4 out of 7 members found this review helpful
|
We got through over an hour-and-a-half of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN before more pressing matters (work-related deadlines) made concentration difficult and, due to the lackluster quality of the film, pointless. I am all for Muslims, Jews and Christians getting along better, and so, it would seem, are the moviemakers. Of course, that would mean that each group would have to give up its mindless faith in some unproven "higher power" that conveniently believes exactly what its angry, power-hungry leaders/followers also believe. But I digress.
The problem with "Kingdom of Heaven" is its blatancy: the villains glower all over the place and have completely unnecessary meetings and conversations, during which they plot the most obvious plans. Ditto, to a lesser extent, the good guys. The event-changing turning point comes when our hero refuses to accept an easy assignment in which the bad guys will be "offed" and he'll get the girl. He simply has TOO much conscience for that. Lovely. But no one involved appears to understand that there are more ways than one to skin a cat. (On the other hand, no movie that has its hero kill a sleazy Catholic priest can be all bad.)
The visuals here are often pretty, although crowd-scene "special effects" are growing a bit obvious. Perhaps I shall regret for the rest of my life not watching the final 40-odd minutes of this movie that American audiences passed over and their Europeans counterparts embraced. Somehow, though, I doubt it. (Warning note to other members: I thought "Gladiator" sucked, as well.) |
|
|
Your cart
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.