Dir. Doug Lefler
Writ. Jez Butterworth, Tom Butterworth
Act. Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai

Another movie about the beginnings of the Arthur Legend and this takes place before he was born. The story is very creative in the idea of how the legend came about and the production value of the movie is very nice. The fault in the failure of this movie does not lie in the actors, director, or writing of the movie, but with the production company that decided to bury the film before it was ever shown on the big screen.

The last Caesar of Rome, Romulus Augustus, played by Thomas Sangster (Tristan + Isolde) is captured and taken to a remote island fortress by the Gaul's who have captured Rome and the remaining pieces of the Northern Empire. While being held captive, Romulus finds a sword with a mysterious background with the help of his former teacher Ambrosinus, played by Ben Kingsley (Amadeus.) One of the last Roman guards, Aurelius, played by Colin Firth (Love Actually,) stages a daring rescue of the Caesar and decides to take him to the last remaining loyal outpost with a Roman Legion, Britain. Once there, however, they discover that the Legion has been disbanded and that they are all farmers, no help against the Gaul's who are following and Vortgyn, a man who is looking for the mystical sword and kills everyone who does not help in the search or gets in the way.

The biggest problem with actual movie itself is the lack of a true nemesis. The story is split between the conflicts on the continent (Europe) and that of Britain and two different nemeses are created. The only constant is a minion of the Gaul King who has let the boy escape and hunts him down in Britain. Especially hazy is the character Vortgyn because he is in nowhere near enough of the movie to be the main nemesis and there is no character development for him. He is a bad guy who kills people who don't help him find the sword. Is he a bad guy? Yes. But give me something else to go on.

The acting was fine but seeing Ben Kingsley in yet another movie that is going to do nothing at the box office makes me ask why is he taking these rolls? For every great movie he is in i.e. Schindler's List, Amadeus, he is in movies that are absolute crap for his caliber of talent, i.e. A Sound of Thunder. It was great seeing him in this movie but why isn't he in movie that are Oscar contenders anymore? It doesn't make since.

One thing that was wonderful about this movie was Indian actress Aishwarya Rai. Wow, is she hot. She definitely gives this move a 9+ for eye candy alone. Oh and she can act too, so its not all beauty and no brains. She has it both and I can't wait to see more of her.

Lastly, this movie is not the greatest, but the producers should have done SOME advertising for this movie. I did know it existed until I saw a poster at the theater in the small town, (granted I live 10 minutes from Denver, but still,) I live in and only saw TV spots for it the same week of its release. The distributor of the film is The Weinstein Company, and I have seen them do this to movies before. You would think that with a little money spent that they could at least get a little more back. But no, if its not going to make 100's of millions than its not worth it.

This movie is good enough to see on DVD, but that is about it. It doesn't suck, but it could have been better.

Brian - the Naked Gun