Craptacular

Rating: 1/10 (28 November 2004)

This movie had terrific production and effects but unfortunately, it is marred by bad direction and awful writing. The horribly misplaced accents are laughable, the historical accuracy is beyond ludicrous and the story is just plain bad. It is obvious that the movie only had one historical consultant and that Oliver Stone has done little more than glance at a history book since his elementary education. Any of the truly significant events of Alexander's life are either completely omitted or simply glossed over. I will refuse to comment on Collin Farrell's acting talent except to say that through the magic of bad writing, direction and his own portrayal, they've portrayed Alexander as a man who couldn't lead a troop of girl scouts to deliver cookies, much less to conquer the known world. The painful insertion of Angelina Jolie as Alexander's mother gives testament to the fact that somebody on the screen writing team has seen "I, Claudius" as the parallels are all too apparent between the humorously never aging Olympias and Livia.
This is easily one of the worst historical 'epics' Hollywood has produced in ages.