5 posts categorized "Sword and Sandal Epic"

December 05, 2015

GLADIATOR

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ColeSmithey.comIt took “Alien” director Ridley Scott to reinvigorate, however briefly, the sword and sandal genre at the turn of the 21st century.

With a script that rings absurdly similar to the betrayal-and-revenge slave plot of “Ben-Hur,” Scott orchestrates the versatile epic formula to detonate violent sword battles that surpass “Ben-Hur’s” much-celebrated chariot race. Scott also puts to shame the brutal jousting battles in “El Cid” (1961). It’s not often that you get to see giant tigers loosely chained inside a Roman coliseum stalking their gladiator prey, alongside gargantuan men with heavy weapons.

Scott takes full advantage of green screen composting to create a breathtaking spectacle of historic period drama.

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Keeping true to the nature of the genre, the film’s big action spectacle is offset by a straight-ahead melodramatic plot. British master thespians Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, and Derek Jacobi bring significant gravitas to the barebones story opposite a stylistic character clash that occurs between, and by, Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Crowe and Phoenix at times give their scenes an unintentionally camp quality that occur as happy accidents.

ColeSmithey.com

The year is 180 A.D. General Maximus (Russell Crowe) leads emperor Marcus Aurelius’ army to victory against a legion of barbarian adversaries in Germania. Times are tough. Many hundreds of arrows fly and heads are decapitated. Russell Crowe takes dramatic liberties similar to those adopted by Charleston Heston in “Ben-Hur.” It’s all just a walk in the park for Crowe, who puts his signature slow-burn vocabulary of practiced reactions through all five expressions in tight rotation.

It’s a rule in the sword-and-sandal textbook that heroes must wink at their character’s self-righteous yet humble sense of stoic hubris. In this case, Crowe winks at himself. This isn’t to say that Crow’s character isn’t a kick to watch. He adequately fills the film’s clearly drawn demands. He also happens to admire his own reflection. Where was Tom Hardy when Ridley Scott needed him?

ColeSmithey.com
Maximus is his father Caesar’s (Richard Harris) favorite son. His other son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) possesses none of the virtues that Caesar desires, namely: “wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance.” The ever-petulant Commodus is all petty jealousy and outrageous ambition. Even the virtues that he imagines he possesses (“ambition, resourcefulness, courage, and devotion”) each come with an asterisk beside them.

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Maximus refuses his father’s offer to succeed him as emperor, even knowing that his evil brother will make life miserable for everyone when he takes the throne. It doesn’t even take that long. Commodus expedites the process by stabbing daddy to death. Next on the list are Maximus’s wife and child, not to mention the man whom he calls brother.

ColeSmithey.com

However, Maximus is a wily one to kill. He ends up as a slave whose only purpose is to give his life away on a battlefield of sand before crowds of bloodthirsty Romans. A fortuitous meeting with Proximo (Oliver Reed), a surviving gladiator, provides Maximus with the fight coaching he needs to stay alive in the coliseum, where anything from blade-wheeled chariots to tigers can emerge, and attack any gladiator with a hellish fury that would call for diapers if it were real.

Rated R. 155 mins. 

3 Stars

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

November 11, 2011

IMMORTALS

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Mickey Rourke vs. Gods & Humans
No Family Jewels are Safe
By Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.comPitched to the public for its producer's association to the 2008 cartoon-cutout sword and sandal trash fest "300," this spectacle-driven tale of myth-based fantasy rightly earns its stripes thanks to a heavy-duty cast that includes the masterful John Hurt as a human-disguised Zeus and Mickey Rourke as an incredibly vicious King Hyperion.

Said producers have taken note of the many criticisms levied against “300” and made significant changes in response. Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") is a welcome replacement to hit-and-miss director Zach Snyder (hit with "Watchmen" and miss with "Sucker Punch"). Gone is the fetishistic adoration of the exposed male physique, which sent “300” into the realm of camp, in favor of truly breathtaking scenes of spectacle in the context of a story that actually holds together.

Movie Review: Immortals | TIME.com

Neptune splashes down to Earth, setting off an unforgettable tsunami which crashes against a cliff shoreline with gigantic, mind-boggling ferocity. It’s one of the first times in recent memory that such a scene excited me so much as an audience member that I was momentarily shaken out of my “critic” mindset.

Immortals,' With Mickey Rourke — Review - The New York Times

Greek peasant warrior Theseus (Henry Cavill – “The Tudors”) is handpicked by the mortal incarnation of Zeus (John Hurt) to take up arms against King Hyperion (Rourke) who, with the help of his enormous army, is wiping out everything in his path in search of an all-empowering golden bow (forged in the heavens by the god Ares) that will destroy humanity. Theseus has a running start at battling King Hyperion considering he’s been mentored by Zeus. Still, Rourke’s ruthlessly sadistic King Hyperion is like a cross between British Petroleum, Bernie Madoff, Alan Greenspan, and Dick Cheney.

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Only the long-lost magical Epirus Bow can release an army of gargantuan Titans imprisoned in a giant cubical cell buried in Mount Tartaros, where they wait to be brought back to life so they can take revenge against the gods who put them there. The catch is that the Gods of Olympus who defeated the Titans are sworn not to interfere with human matters even if it means allowing King Hyperion to obtain the powerful bow. As such, Henry Cavill’s Theseus carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Immortals (2011) - Tarsem Singh - RoweReviews

Lush compositions of magnificent iconic imagery are captured by cinematographer Brendan Galvin (“Veronica Guerin”). Ominous foreboding skies cover every scene like something out of a painting by Bruegel the Elder. There’s a constant sense of mythic themes running at crosscurrents to the brutality onscreen. Some of this effect can be attributed to John Hurt’s uncanny ability to influence the narrative during his short but crucial scenes that bookend the story.

Critic After Dark: Immortals (Tarsem Singh, 2011)

The incredibly violent action that occurs includes numerous decapitations and scenes of erotic sensuality that temporarily alleviate the bone-crushing violence on hand. Myth genre movies have come a long way since the Ray Harryhausen- designed stop motion effects of “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963). “Immortals” is a big-screen popcorn movie to send off 2011 with a bang. You can taste the fury.

Theseus Henry Cavill Immortals 2011 fight scene. | Immortal, Henry cavill  immortals, Action poses

Rated R. 110 mins.

3 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

May 10, 2010

AGORA — CANNES 2009

   ColeSmithey.com    Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cole Smithey on Patreon



ColeSmithey.comAlejandro Amenabar ("The Sea Inside") makes a receding leap of faith toward creating a sword-and-sandal epic reinvented as an examination of how philosophy, religion, and astronomy collided in 4th century Alexandria, Egypt.

This macro/micro attempt to shed light on modern planetary issues of war and ecology places astronomer and philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) at the center of a brewing storm between pagans, Jews, and Christians.

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Hypatia's students follow her lessons with an added amount of sexual tension that evokes the competing romantic efforts by Orestes (Oscar Isaac) and Davus (Max Minghella), Hypatia's personal slave.

A bloody uprising by Christians costs the city its library of ancient wisdom,and places Hypatia in the arms of the politically ambitious Roman Orestes.

ColeSmithey.com

Davus aligns himself with the Christians. The film is a shorthand condemnation of how religion is used by politicians to seize power and control the masses.

ColeSmithey.com

For all of the massive sets and overstated rumination on the design of the universe, "Agora" is film that fails at every step to be believable.

Not Rated. 126 mins.

2 Stars

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

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