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The 13th Warrior

The 13th Warrior

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Lovey to see, a good action yarn, but not fully satisfying.
Review: This is a true action film--and action dominates plot throughout. This leaves some gaps in understanding, but will not eliminate enjoyment.

The good points of this DVD--really sharp, and exquisite color. Color design of this film is first rate. Scenery is gorgeous (BC wildlands are, of course, gorgeous in themselves). Score also fine Goldsmith work. Cast well picked, top to bottom. Enemy truly fearsom, and battles suspenseful especially due to terrible odds against heroes.

But the weak points--plot not altogether coherent, with some helpful exposition obviously missing. Too much of film in foreing languages (couldn't subtitles have been used? ) Lighting (especially during battles) too dark to really see.

The DVD is great as far as it goes, but a bit more in the way of extras (at least actor backgrounds, etc.) would have been welcome.

Don't expect perfection here, but there IS much to enjoy!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good Norse Mythology Movie
Review: Whenever we talk of mythologies, most movies are made about the Greeks. Don't get me wrong! I love Greek mythology. But to see a Viking Mythology movie is a rare and special treat indeed!

This movie is based on the culture of the Norsemen during Middle Ages from an outsider's point of view. In this case, Antonio Banderas plays an Arab poet, who was serving as an ambassador for his king to the lands far to the north. His travels have taken him to a Norsemen Camp. By some trick of fate, he was forced to join twelve Norsemen warriors who were summoned by a friendly king to help protect his village.

Although the plot is weak, the movie is very entertaining because the real stars are the Viking warriors. The character played by Banderas is almost limited to as an observer. There are no special magical skills in the fighting sequences, only brute strength and wit.

This movie just made my all-time favorite list. I recommend this to anyone who loves a cultural experience and fighting sequences that is not spoiled by invincible characters.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Lads Movie!
Review: The magnificent 7 + 6 but this time they are Norsemen and 1 Arab!

I really enjoyed this movie and thought the film kept up the tension, some really nice filming and they use of light in the forest scenes were great. Excellent sound and although the ending rather let it down (too easy and quickly over), don't keep asking why this and why that, just sit back, dim the lights and enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: COOOL MOVIE!
Review: All i can say is this movie rox!go buy it now!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Come back Kirk Douglas, all is forgiven
Review: I read somewhere that this movie was considered to be Vikingsploitation. Well it certainly was no David Attenborough special! On the good side the use of language and the costumes and props gave the story a good feel of Viking life. All the characters were believable (even Banderas) and the story was simple. However, the greatest evil that faced our heroes was pretty poor at its job and whetever tension that was developed early on in the movie dissipated pretty quickly. This is not a bad movie, just another disappointing one. Another movie that gets puffed and hyped up and then fails to deliver. I just wonder how many more movies will end up being nothing more than a version of the Seven Samurai transposed over space and time?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Woeful!
Review: I can't believe all of the positive reviews for this film, it's absolutely awful! How can this be considered to be an epic? Making this film any longer wouldn't have helped because as it stands it was a struggle to sit through. It's one thing to be out numbered and fighting against the odds, but the end battle was the most ridiculous i've ever seen. Ben Hur is an epic, this is just an expensive waste of time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Banderas shouldn't have taken this part
Review: Antonio Banderas just wasn't convincing as an Arab. It looked like Zoro playing an Arab. It also didn't make sense why he was chosen as the 13th warrior. How was he the key (why a foreigner)? It also wasn't a very strong ending. There were some good fight sequences but not enough to carry this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not all that, but still a great!
Review: I love the movie! Don't get me wrong. It was great, but I thought it was kinda sick that all the underground cave men wore bear skins and rode horses? How many bears were in those mountains! And did they steal the horses or find them? They also seemed pretty stupid considering the fact that they were terrorizing this town and pretending to be ancient animals out of a legand, but maybe I have said to much. Even with all these mistakes it was a great movie and I will be proud to add it to my collection!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Almost, but not quite...
Review: Antonio is put into the shoes of an Arabian who is the last and the 13th warrior to be chosen to assist in a rescue mission. It has the atmosphere of braveheart and robin hood (swords, flaming arrows, battle scenes, vast landscapes,) but it lacks the depth in plot and in the characters that the other movies of this genre have. The potential was there, it could have been a great movie, but it just didn't make it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Beowulf On Screen
Review: This movie is the story of Beowulf (Bulwyf) -- not the fighting of Grendel in Heorot by a young warrior, but of the death of the king of the Geats against a "fire-worm." The story is told not from the epic poem itself, but as a "what if Beowulf had really lived" (as, in some form, he might well have). Thus, the fire-worm of this story is a tribe of Wendols, a pagan, aboriginal-European peoples that threatened the Geats during the time of Beowulf.

This movie has the pacing of a verbal tradition -- moments of great dramatic importance are highlighted little more than any other. What this movie succeeds in beautifully -- partly due to the extraordinary presence and restrained acting of the man who plays Beowulf -- is evoking the superstition, desolation and heroic tradition of a Europe more than a thousand years ago.

This movie could have been better -- what could have been an epic was murdered by thoughtless studio editing. I would give almost anything to see this movie released in a "director's cut" format. I would hazard a guess that it would be a better movie than Braveheart.

Finally Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack is at times haunting and at times epic and is almost the equal of Basil Poldouris's work on Conan (and, in a few places, better).

The reason I feel that this movie failed in theatres is that the audience was not given the background necessary to truly appreciate the depth of this film -- it came off as little more than an action-flick with swords, when in fact it was resting squarely on a thousand years of European literary tradition. The film should have been given the time to develop this depth on-screen. It's hard to say for sure what happened in development with this film, but I'd have to say that the producer should probably have been smacked upside the head for not having read Beowulf.


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