Reviews

I'm usually a harsh critic of movies, and I rarely disagree with a 29% on Rottentomatoes and 44 on Metacritic, but I think they totally missed the boat on this movie.

This movie had heart, some humor, and good writing. The only objection I might have is a lot of sexual humor that some might find objectionable for the kids they took to it.

Sandler is very likable. The movie has an edge, and it's funny.

Even has a moral to it that's handled smoothly.

On the drama/lifelesson side, I thought it did one of the best jobs at capturing that whole Kapra-alternate reality thing of any modern movie. Usually that sort of thing comes off horribly badly and clumsily (e.g. Scooged, and the horrible Mr. Destiny).

Maybe they just didn't know to expect this from Sandler. I had no expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Treat Williams and Kevin J. O'Connor in particular are very good.

It's a low budget genre flick, but acting is excellent across the board. O'Connor is great comic relief. The monster is clichéd, but cool. Quality and care went into this movie across the board.

I definitely recommend this movie without reservation.

I've seen it several times on cable as well as originally on DVD, and my opinion of it has held up.

Wes Studi (never bad in anything), Djimon Hounsou, and Anthony Heald (the psychologist from Silence of the Lambs) as bad guys and Anthony Heald are very competent as well.

I just can't understand how this movie got only a 5.4 from users.

I really enjoyed this movie. The way the movie started in Europe and how dark it was there... and the journey to Jerusalem... just wonderful stuff up to that point.

Liam Neeson, as usual, is just SO GOOD, you wish he had more screen time.

• Orlando Bloom, actually surprisingly, was able to carry the movie as a lead. I was surprised he had the heft to do it, but I agree with the critic who said that the beard helped. He was a man, not a boy.

• Battle scenes... incredible. I was really surprised that they could wow me, since we've been numbed by the quality of battle scenes in so many previous movies, but they did a great job.

• Portrayal of the Muslims. EXTREMELY fair. In being "even-handed" to Christians and Muslims there, if anything, they emphasized the Christian fanatics (in the form of the Templars in particular, to simplify things) as being the "badguys" more than anyone else... (which is historically accurate to some degree, in my understanding). I was surprised and pleased that they tried to be accurate, and didn't try to emphasize some "BAD MUSLIMS" to make it "even".

• Movie is very secular in it's moralizing.

And it portrays Christianity particularly religious men, VERY badly (the Priest who steals the cross from Bloom's wife's corpse... the Bishop in Jerusalem who's ready to convert to Islam at the first sign of defeat... and who also wants to abandon the civilians... the knights templar...) I thought this got a tad gratuitous. There were really NO GOOD Christian FIGURES IN THE MOVIE. The only good purported Christians were basically acting Agnostic (Bloom, Neeson, etc.) The actual religious Christians were made out to be hypocrites.

Meanwhile Saladhudin was a man of honor.. but also somewhat moderate.

• Movie could definitely have a little more narrative focus and maybe have a little more of an emotional circle for Orlando Bloom character. The emotional arc is ALREADY complete fairly early in the movie (Bloom becomes a man of conscience)... and it's kind of boring since the character doesn't really move after that.

But the movie tackled a HUGE topic and tackled it fairly well. I just wish there was a better script to handle the compelling personal journey for Orlando Bloom (from widower, murderer seeking redemption, lost bastard son) that was PROMISED at the beginning.

It seems that as soon as he brings water to his father's old land, he's just about done his journey, and it turns into a simple historical battle movie. (but a darn good one)

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE was good. Why does it get bagged on so bad?

This movie was a really close scene for scene remake... down to copying many of the lines directly...

"The a--Hole section is over there...",

the African dancing scene, etc.

The female lead in both movies is awesome. I don't know why this movie gets so bagged on here. I've certainly seen a lot of worse movies recently.

Most of the modern comedies and horror movies suck worse than this.

At least the leads were likable.

This is the closest thing to a modern day Kapra film I can think of...

In fact, when Curtis comments on the DVD about how he was thinking about making one of the characters at the airport an angel, and add another level of metaphysical to the movie... that just proves the point.

Wonderful, feel good movie, with real charm, and genuine sentiment. Thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I could literally watch it over again many times.

10 year old Olivia Olson is an absolute wonder, LITERALLY jaw dropping vocals at the christmas concert coming out of that tiny figure...

Everybody has different storylines that they liked more than others. I could have done less with the two sex-scene stand-ins (cute couple though they were), and the Brit who went to America, especially given the 2 1/2 hour length... but the other stories were all fantastic.

Glad i bought the DVD.

First time I ever saw Heather Graham... I knew she'd be big... or I hoped it. The movie itself is definitely OK. Not great, but reasonably funny, and certainly never cringe-inducingly bad.

The two Coreys are actually good in this, and Haim playing a kid instead of a "cool" guy is definitely more his speed.

The biggest difference is that this movie is all about FUN. It's about setting up antici- and this is before each action sequence, a la a spaghetti western where the 3 guys are standing around facing each other down, and the tension is so thick and cool you can almost touch it. -pation.

The movies just filled with moments where you are just giddy, waiting to see how the action is going to come out... by putting a twist on your expectations in every scene of the movie, he sets you up so that you just don't know what he's gonna do...

Plus, seeing an edged weapon chopping off limbs (like it's SUPPOSED to) is pretty nice too..

Great, great movie.

Excellent concept. Loved the usual humor and human interaction typical of Joss Whedon shows.

Special effects were top notch.

Watch the show... and if the unconventional blend of genres is a bit jarring... stick with it. The nice thing about Joss Whedon shows is that they eventually explain everything, and it's all well thought out.

This was an excellent movie. I highly recommend it. Tobey Maguire is wonderful, as is Kirsten Dunst. Script is VERY true to the comic book, despite the fact that the webs come out of his body instead of through a mechanical device.

Tobey WAS a modern day Peter Parker. Kirsten Dunst actually WAS a modern day Mary Jane, with the big smile hiding the sad heart (I would have liked to see Gwen Stacy too, but hey, I'm old school).

The action sequences, despite the fact that they defied physics, had a wonderful feel to them, overall. None of those annoying, lingering shots of the hero posing before he fights like they had in so many other comic book movies. No stupid looking haymakers thrown. Just fast action that you'll miss if you blink.

Personal minor quibble: Robbie Robertson (yes, I am a geek) seemed nice, but a bit doughy. I always thought of him as a strong, Sidney Poitier looking guy...

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What I liked most about the movie was that it captured the magic of it's source material better than any other "comic-book movie" that came before it:

I think any comparison to Batman, X-Men, or any of the other major "comic book movies" are off base. This is a far superior film to all of them.

When I think of Batman (which I thought was not bad), I can't help but think about the clunky fighting scenes, that awful, mechanical looking rubber batman suit, and the completely incongruous personality of Michael Keaton as a Bruce Wayne. Dark knight, my ass.

XMen (again, I liked it): Pretty loose adaptation of the comic book. With the exception of Professor X, Magneto, & Wolverine... the interesting personalities of all the characters was lost. Storm was a joke, Cyclops & Jean Grey were generic. Plus, except for the fistfights, the action sequences didn't have the magic of the comic books... (Cyclops', Storms', & Jean Grey's use of their powers just looked clunky).