Rating: 
Summary: Slight Correction of Lawrance M. Bernabo's Review
Review: I have little to add...except to note that this work is NOT completely original, but IS based on the book "Lt. Hornblower" by C.S. Forester. Like all of the AEA Hornblower series, it does not follow the storyline in the books exactly. In my opinion, this one deviates more than the others from the original story. In the book for example, Hornblower does not stand trial...After you watch these excellent DVDs, go read the books!
Rating:
Summary: Glued to the Set
Review: I have seen all six installments of Horatio Hornblower. The entire set is a stellar achievement, but these last two movies are the very best yet. Hard-pounding adventure--forget the gym; your heart will race like it never has on the stairmaster--and genuinely touching and inspiring friendships abound. My advice: buy all six, and the finale will be that much more heartrending. It's an emptional rollercoaster you won't soon forget.
Rating: 
Summary: A Return To The Great Sea Stories of Yore
Review: I just finished watching these two instalments of the ongoing series and was enthralled. A&E has certainly lived up to its name in creating such as rich and colorful series with it's lead, Horatio, full of honor, duty and incredible valor. No guessing about the hero being a good, honest man here, and heaven knows, we need a few more honorable hero's like him in this disrespectful world we live in. In these two movies, Horatio is faced with keeping to form within the strict British seamen's code of conduct for members of His Majesty's Royal Service and his own conscience for the good of his fellow man. A fine line is drawn as the ensuing court trial seeks to uncover whether Horatio and his fellow officers worked in the best interest of England or simply sought to advance their own personal ambitions. The heroics, compassion, comradery, and sacrifice that follow are testaments to what men can become. If you like programs that uphold what is good and honorable among men, then you will love this series. No flawed anti hero here who breaks every rule along the way, just good old fashioned high seas adventure with a hero who has a heart of gold.
Rating:
Summary: the best movie in the world!!!!
Review: i love horatio hornblower its my absolute favorite movie i would deffinetly give it five star, i'd give it ten if possible.
it's absolutely amazing, interesting, and the best movie in the history of time!!!!
watch it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent adaptation of Lt Hornblower
Review: I think this is the best of the series so far. It is an excellent adaptation of the LT Hornblower book with the follow up written by Forrester (the letter of Admiral Hornblower telling the truth about what happened). The movie develops ship board life more fully and we are made to live on board seeing how each of the different ratings actually lived as opposed to the more sanitised view of the Hornblower with Gregory Peck (which I liked as well but for different reasons) It is an excellent exploration of how damaging a command structure can be if all of the officers are not in sync. Another excellent treatment of this topic is Damn the Defiant with Guiness as the Captain and Bogarde his First Lieutenant. As with Hornblower in general the plot is a bit to pat (Damn the Defiant is probably a better story)but that may be the result of the fact that I first read it more than 30 years ago so it holds no surprizes for me. I thought the battle scenes featuring the ships were nicely done...better than the first ones in the series. They are now using ships appropriate to the time period. (In the first of the series they were nice but looked like they should have been in the Seven Years War.) But I will admit to being a fan of the genre so I will buy anything having to do with wooden ships...this is certainly one I think any other fan should own.
Rating:
Summary: it was the best movie ever writen
Review: In the movie Mutiny we find Horatio In a prision with Captian Pellew coming to see him. Then we see that horatio begin to tell captian pellew the whole story. Including every bit of detail possible. Also in Mutiny we meet Mr. Bush and we see that he is not trusted at and has no friends aboard the Renown. In retrubution we see Horatio Hornblower and Mr. Bukland tell the rest of the story at the trial. At the end of the secound movie it ends very tragicly but it had to end that way be sure to keep a box of tisues near by. It defently has to be rated five stars for the best acting and spacial features and the feelings that Ioan Griffudd shows. I recomend it to any person who loves action/ drama movies.
Rating:
Summary: Minus One Star for Bad Directing
Review: Judging from how poorly Andrew Grieves and his film editor handle scenes with the extras, I suspect that most of the wonderful performances from the principal actors in the Hornblower II series came from the actors' talents, not the director's. Mr. Grieves seems content to let his extras phone in their work; and he needs to understand that such wooden performances detract terribly from the whole piece. As for the editing, you can almost hear Grieves calling, "...and, action!" for most of scene-setting sequences. Ugh! That said, the more character-driven script for Hornblower II gave Ioan Gruffudd a chance to exercise his considerable acting chops, which is always a pleasure to see. Jamie Bamber (Kennedy), Paul Copely (Matthews), Sean Gilder (Styles), and the ever-wonderful Robert Lindsay (Pellew) turned in strong supporting performances yet again. The addition of Paul McGann (Bush) strengthened the ensemble. Credit should especially go to Phillip Glenister (Hobbs) who took an unsympathetic character and showed us his evolution with subtlety and without sentimentality. The first Hornblower series veered so far from the original C. S. Forrester's Midshipman Hornblower as to weaken the story. The screenplay for Hornblower II was a vast improvement over the first series. Even with the additional characters and changes in plot, Hornblower II screen adaptation remained true to Forrester's original tale in Lieutenant Hornblower. The next screenplay (and let's all hope there will be a Hornblower III)will pose a real challenge to develop the inner turmoil and melancholy of C. S. Forrester's Hornblower character as his naval career progresses. Ioan Gruffudd is up to the task, but I'm not sure Grieves is. Find a new director and a new editor; keep a close eye on the screen writer; bring back the principle characters (minus Kennedy, sadly); and Hornblower III will get five stars for sure. Judging from how poorly Andrew Grieves and his film editor handle scenes with the extras, I suspect that most of the wonderful performances from the principal actors in the Hornblower II series came from the actors' talents, not the director's. Mr. Grieves seems content to let his extras phone in their work; and he needs to understand that such wooden performances detract terribly from the whole piece. As for the editing, you can almost hear Grieves calling, "...and, action!" for most of scene-setting sequences. Ugh! That said, the more character-driven script for Hornblower II gave Ioan Gruffudd a chance to exercise his considerable acting chops, which is always a pleasure to see. Jamie Bamber (Kennedy), Paul Copely (Matthews), Sean Gilder (Styles), and the ever-wonderful Robert Lindsay (Pellew) turned in strong supporting performances yet again. The addition of Paul McGann (Bush) strengthened the ensemble. Credit should especially go to Phillip Glenister (Hobbs) who took an unsympathetic character and showed us his evolution with subtlety and without sentimentality. The first Hornblower series veered so far from the original C. S. Forrester's Midshipman Hornblower as to weaken the story. The screenplay for Hornblower II was a vast improvement over the first series. Even with the additional characters and changes in plot, Hornblower II screen adaptation remained true to Forrester's original tale in Lieutenant Hornblower. The next screenplay (and let's all hope there will be a Hornblower III) will pose a real challenge to develop the inner turmoil and melancholy of C. S. Forrester's Hornblower character as his naval career progresses. Ioan Gruffudd is up to the task, but I'm not sure Grieves is. Find a new director and a new editor; keep a close eye on the screen writer; bring back the principle characters (minus Kennedy, sadly); and Hornblower III will get five stars for sure.
Rating:
Summary: Hip, Hip Horatio!
Review: Just as good as the original four series! Hope these win an Emmy like the first ones did! Ioan is an extraordinary actor! There are also tons of wonderful characters/actors in this series as well. Cheers mateys and hip, hip hooray for Horatio Hornblower and may there be many more series to follow!
Rating:
Summary: No subtitles, but is closed captioned
Review: Just wanted to let people know that this is closed captioned, even though there are no subtitles as in the first series; as long as your television is new enough to have closed captioning encoding, you're OK. (I'd like to know why the box doesn't state this, as I nearly passed on it due to not knowing this until actually watching it.)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful continuation
Review: Let me just say, my "to read" list is very long and Forester's Hornblower series is on there somewhere, quietly inching its way up. So, this review will be based solely on the merits of the movies. Having seen the whole series, I may be inclined to say that *Retribution* is my favorite. And this is not because the plot is the best--in fact, the first set of movies were perhaps better in this regard. But there was a strength in this set, especially the latter, that drew me in. That strength came in the form of the characters themselves. To say that this was because of fine acting would be redundant as so many of the other reviewers have pointed this out. Yet what I've seen mentioned so little is the presence of strong emotion. One would think that that fine naval code, the strict sense of rank, would leave scarce room for feeling. So why is it that when Pellew lets slip how much he cares for Hornblower I found myself in that vague state of misty smiles? The bond between the men, all of the men, is at its most touching here. And I found myself reacting more to that than anything else in the series(even though the action was stirring and the sense of suspense sweet.) I was thoroughly pleased with the series as a whole and *The Adventure Continues* offered even more entertainment. Ioan Gruffudd is wonderful as Hornblower, though Gregory Peck he is not, and I truly hope to see more of him both as Hornblower and not.
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