Walter Raleigh, or was it Errol Flynn

Rating: 2/10 (5 November 2007)

Utter tripe. While I wasn't expecting a documentary, surely the film makers could have kept the storyline a little more plausible. Sir Walter Raleigh, played ineffectually by Clive Owen, is depicted as an Errol Flynn type swashbuckler who personally sailed a fireship into the heart of the Spanish armada before diving overboard and swimming under the flaming aftermath to safety. It couldn't have been any worse if they had put a cutlass between his teeth and had a parrot on his shoulder. I half expected Captain Jack Sparrow to put in an appearance as well. Sir Francis Drake was relegated to one sentence of dialogue, and then only to egg on Raleigh, who in reality wasn't even on a ship at the time of the main conflict.
Mary Queen of Scots had the worst Scottish accent since Mel Gibsons portrayal of William Wallace. Francis Walsingham is portrayed somewhat woodenly by Geoffrey Rush, who seemed to be going through the motions and portrayed a character who ended up as menacing as a rather sleepy sheep.
Sorry if I am a bit negative, but this was utter tosh.