LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Phantoms (1998) in Movies
Sep 21, 2020
Pure Imagination: A Sorta Biography
Book
The life and good times of one of the world's favourite songwriters. If you've ever hummed a popular...
Shakespeare's Strangest Tales: Extraordinary but True Tales from 400 Years of Shakespearean Theatre
Book
A fascinating playbill of stories from the weird and wonderful world of Shakespearean theatre...
Caligula (1979)
Movie Watch
The rise and fall of the notorious Roman Emperor Caligula, showing the violent methods that he...
Under Milkwood
Book
Commissioned by the BBC, and described by Dylan Thomas as 'a play for voices', UNDER MILK WOOD takes...
Absolute Pandemonium: My Louder Than Life Story
Book
There is no one quite like Brian Blessed. He's an actor, film star, trained undertaker, unlikely...
David McK (3227 KP) rated Troy (2004) in Movies
Apr 28, 2020
At the time of writing this review (2020), there was actually surprisingly few such films: of the top of my head, I can only really think of "Robin Hood", "Kingdom of Heaven", and this.
With quite a few big names in its cast - Brad Pitt, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Peter O'Toole and Eric Bana to name a few - this retells the story of the siege of Troy (although said siege doesn't seem to last as long as originally told), following Paris (Orlando Bloom) elopement with the wife of Menelaus of Troy (Brendan Gleeson) Helen (Diane Kruger), giving an excuse for Agememnon (a scenery chewing Brian Cox) to go to war against that city.
While this does have some bruising action scenes - the beach landing, and Achilles Vs Hector are my personal favourite - unfortunately large swathes of the film are bogged down by necessary exposition, and I have to say that this version of Helen of Sparta (or Troy) face may be able to launch a dinghy or two, but not the fleet of a thousand ships that she is described as in the original texts (where she is said to be the most beautiful woman in the world).
What Fresh Lunacy is This?: The Authorized Biography of Oliver Reed
Book
Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came...