Sure it was only 3 hours?!

Rating: 4/10 (2 June 2001)

When I came out of the cinema after seeing this movie, I felt like I'd been in there for years. To put it simply, it's overlong, overblown and definitely overhyped. The plot is trivial compared to the actual events, and the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. I've never heard a script so full of cliches in any film before. I like Ben Affleck as an actor in films like Chasing Amy and Dogma, but he doesn't have the presence to carry a film like this. Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale make the best of the terrible script, and overall the acting is fine if not great. The film is not emotionally involving as the characters are severely underdeveloped stereotypes, so I ended up not really caring what happened to any of them. It is also completely predictable. While watching it, I had the nagging feeling that I'd seen it all somewhere before, only better. It does have its good points however, as the actual war scenes are very well filmed and more involving than the rest of the film. It's a shame that they spent so much time and money on what amounts to slightly more than a third of the film that they left the script to the last minute. This film had the potential to be great - well-known historical events, big budget to achieve this and a decent cast - all let down by an awful script.