Why the Irish accents ? (and other points..)

Rating: 3/10 (1 October 2006)

Several points:
1. Why are all the actors (except for Angelina Jolie) using *IRISH* (or even some Scottish) accents? They could have tried for a neutral American or perhaps (gasp) even a fake Greek accent, like Angelina Jolie did. I think the choice to instruct the actors to use *IRISH* accents is a terrible one. Like it or not, the Irish accent has no place in ancient Greece. This isn't Braveheart. It just makes the dialog laughable and unwatchable.
You can't have ancient Greeks speaking in Irish accents. It's ludicrous. You might as well have them use a German or French accent. Hell, throw in a few Jamaican, Haitian, Trinidadian and Bangladeshi accents too just to mix it up. Oh and a Swedish would be fun. "Svedish meatballs ja ja, conquering India ja ja."
If you want an example of what a movie *should* do accent-wise: The movie "Troy" did a better job with accents. Not a single Irish accent in ancient Greece. Either they used a neutral British or a neutral American or even a fake Greek.
At first I thought perhaps the majority of the actors are Irish. However further investigation revealed that even Actors that aren't Irish, like Connor Paolo (who is a native New Yorker) has a slight, annoying, brogue. *It doesn't make any sense whatsoever!!* Unless the idiot director told them to do it. In which case it's highly idiotic.
2. Why is the acting so bad? Even Anthony Hopkins' performance is lackluster. This must be due to terrible directing and a pretty mediocre script.
3. Why is it that the same 3 guys get cast as supporting roles in all these historical epic war movies? A few of the supporting cast in this movie also were seen movies like Braveheart and Gladiator for example. It's really quite predictable.