Rating: 
Summary: OK but.......
Review: Great depiction of time and place with good acting but a bit cliche ridden. First could anybody ever have been as evil as the British officer portrayed in this film? Even Hitler? Second if I ever have to see the climactic hero versus villain fight scene where the hero appears to be beaten but somehow pulls it out in the end and kills the bad guy again I may lose my cookies.
Rating: 
Summary: An American "Braveheart" With A More Upbeat Ending
Review: "The Patriot" is beautifully filmed in a state where I once lived. The acting is great although Gibson occassionally seems a a bit awkward with the 18th Century dialect. I seem to have detected more than one similarity to Gibson's own family life. Besides the fact that he has seven children in real life, the daughter-in-law of his chracter, Benjamin Martin, is named Anne Patricia, which was the actual name of Gibson's mother. One wonders how many times Gibson intends to play the vengeful widower/father in his movies(i.e., "Mad Max", "Lethal Weapon", "Braveheart", "Ransom"). But it's a formula that works for him. Heath Ledger was terrific in his breakthrough role as Gabriel Martin, and he looked the way one might picture the Angel Gabriel himself in his final scenes. Accompanied by a cast full of beautiful young children, a strong but refined sister-in-law who gives audiences an idea of the love that Martin and his children have missed played by an elegant Joely Richardson (Ironically a British actress and the real-life daughter of an outspoken Blitz survivor), superbly portrayed villians who one feels really deserve their comeuppance, an appropriately savage band of rustics recruited to support The Cause, a kindly minister befuddled by the compromises the war forces him to make, determined slaves and freedmen on both sides, a charismatic French officer, who like Martin, has suffered the loss of a wife and two children, a Tory who betrays those to whom he'd been close all his life and the constant theme of Martin's desire for redemption for sins committed in a previous war(Observe the number of times he is shown staring at a cross), the end result is a magnificent piece of drama that will be enjoyed for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: A good collectors item
Review: A good blend of "BraveHeart" and The "Last of the Mohicans". If you like those two, you will welcome "The Patriot". Patriot improves "BraveHeart" with a happy ending, but lacks the comradity of the latter. A good try at romance but not quite up to "Mohican's" standards. Although Gibson takes on a long 2.5 hour journey the effect impressive enough. The film could easily have been cut for about 2 hours which could have been sufficing.
Rating: 
Summary: A flawed but worthwhile film
Review: This film has a few fatal flaws, and a few major strengths of equal size. Let me first begin with the 'bad news': the script is often puerile (or saccharine); many of the actors resemble carboard cut-outs (with a few notable exceptions); the British are often made out as either blindly, blunderingly stupid or cannibalisticaly evil; and the female characters are notoriously badly acted. That said, here are the strengths: Mel Gibson, Jason Isaacs, Tom Wilkinson (as Gen. Cornwallis), and Heath Ledger play their parts very well. There are also some delightful moments with a few of the lesser characters, especially the French Major (played by Tchéky Karyo), the Reverend (Rene Auberjonois), and Peter Howard (Joey D. Vieira). The battle sequences are stunning, and the cinematography is lush and sometimes even symbolic. The foremost saving grace of this film, I think, is the score by famed musical raconteur John Williams. His ability to tell a tale through music hasn't faded, and the score is good enough to fall in love with. In fact, if there is only one reason (besides Mel Gibson's baby blues) to see this film, it's the music.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than Leprechaun in the Hood, but what isn't?
Review: Lets see, what kind of problems might I have had with this movie? In no particular order here they are. Ridiculously over-the-top antagonists meant to cheaply sucker the audience into an "us" vs. "them" mentality. An equally ridiculous use of over-the-top dramatics which will only succeed in tugging at the hearstrings of the weak minded. And the one aspect of the film I feel I must stress over all others is the films overwhelming predictability. Maybe if I didn't watch so many movies it wouldn't have seemed so predictable. But as is, the film seems to follow many conventional movie formulas. Still, though, I think a reasonably intelligent individual will see what's coming a mile ahead in this movie, irregardless of their cinematic familiarity. If I wanted to I could probably reach or exceed the 1000 word limit for this review, but I have better things to do right now. Anyway, I gave this movie two stars and not one. After all, there are worst movies out there, like Leprechaun in the Hood.
Rating:
Summary: A Review on the Patriot
Review: First off, this is certainly a historically inaccurate movie on the American Revolution; but then again, most movies are historically inaccurate. But, what many seem to forget is that the intention of the movie isn't really about the Revolution. Rather, it is a universal story about a people (and a family) struggling for peace and freedom. Mel Gibson does a masterful job as peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin, who finds he and his family are caught in the middle of a war against Britain's monarchy. He is not the perfect hero that Maximus is in the film "Gladiator," the "other" big epic of that year. After several watchings, Maximus actually grew tiresome as the "perfect" hero (Oh, and by the way, "Gladiator" is just as historically inaccurate: there was never any Maximus, Commodus was in many ways very different in real life, and the ending is pure fiction). Not that Benjamin Martin doesn't want to equally tear apart his own archenemy, who turns out to be British Colonel Tavington(Jason Isaacs) who manages to destroy his idyllic world (...) in the process. A word on Tavington: He's probably one of the best villains in modern movie history, and ranks right up there with Commodus in the movie "Gladiator." It's difficult to decide who does the better job. (...) Yes, typical; but so are most revenge movies. Yes, it is a typical "freedom" movie; but it perfectly captures the mood of an idealistic people who defied a world power. And yes, the family is a very typical family; but it's supposed to be, because it represents any family during a time of war. Other actors are not bad in "The Patriot." Wilkinson as Cornwallis is perfect; his father-figure for Colonel Tavington is a nice touch. Their exchanges are some of the most interesting in the movie. Heath Ledger is also good as the eldest son of Martin. The battles are quite good, though by no means perfect.
The only real qualms I have over the movie (...) was a silly side romance that, no matter how I look at it, I still find slightly offensive. Another qualm is the fact that not enough effort was put into bringing out Tavington's side. You have to watch him carefully to realize there's quite a bit of a story behind him other than a colonel who loves to butcher people. The final qualm over the movie is that it doesn't try very hard to include any of the most important events during the American Revolution. It's a pity not much is said about the Revolution at all. All in all, however, it is a very good movie that should be taken for what it is; not what it isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Mel Gibson's best since BRAVEHEART.
Review: The Patriot takes you back to the battles of the Revolutionary War, when an elderly father must join his oldest son (Heath Ledger- A Knight's Tale), Gabriel, on the battlefields. MY REVIEW: "An excellent motion picture! Mel Gibson's best since BRAVEHEART! The film is filled with emotional epic warfare drama! A great movie for all fans of wonderful movies!"- MJV & the Movies
Rating:
Summary: Clap--Clap--clap--More claping
Review: I won't go into depth about anything here. I'm sure just about everyone else has. I wanted to simply say the acting blows me away!!! I think Mel Gibson is like...uh..."the god of acting."
Rating:
Summary: Braveheart in Red White & Blue
Review: Wonderful historical extravaganza with a major drawback. If you saw and loved (as I did), Braveheart, you've already seen this one. Once again, Gibson, this time as The Ghost, instills fear in the hearts of the enemy with his raggedy band of volunteers. Predictably, his loved ones are killed by the enemies of freedom. And Gibson gets his revenge. Some tender moments and terriffic acting keep this Braveheart remake moving but the similarities of the films are just too much to overlook. (If you didn't see Braveheart, you'll probably love it.) Sorry Mel.
Rating: 
Summary: The Propagandist
Review: ..."Braveheart" take two could be an alternative title. But really, "The Propagandist" would be most apt, since this laughable "history" is some of the most virulent Anglophobic claptrap I have ever seen. All the blatant inaccuracy of Revere's famous Boston Massacre engraving seems to be the approach, i.e., forget the facts, just hate the Brits! I couldn't decide if the cartoon characters shown as the Brits were more one-dimensionally stupid or one-dimensionally bloodthirsty. Oops! Maybe I've missed some unexpected character development in a Gibson flick - the Brits really were two-dimensional: stupid AND bloodthirsty. And gee, what a "good massuh" Gibson's character was to his slaves - they all loved him. Kind of makes you want to be a slave and wonder what all that abolitionist nonsense was about! Can anyone even begin to believe how [incorrect] the facts are in this mess of a film? Turning regular British soldiers into incessant civilian-murdering thugs may have been what one would expect of a period propagandist like Paul Revere, but surely we ought to expect a bit more truth and enlightened approach these days. And the watering down of the hateful institution of slavery, practiced by these "patriots", just sidesteps an historical dilemma we Amercians ought to be coming to grips with some day. I am also very tired of the untruthful cliches in supposed historical films, and I thought the American public would be too at this point. What is really disappointing to me is that some of my countrymen are so sheepishly jingoistic that they'll get caught up in this "hooray for the red white and blue" mentality and like this film, despite what...it really is. For example, if these film makers had made a brand new Western showing the old cliches - the peaceful, civilized, settlers getting massacred by the savage, bloodthirsty Indians - the film would have been hooted out of the theatre. But somehow, because it is so "patriotic" to support the American revolution, and fashionable to think badly of the Brits, we accept the same level of outrageously untruthful cliches in this film. I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone who would prefer some small level of truth in their historical films. It is such a fairy tale, they should have thrown in the troll under the bridge.
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