Poor man's "Braveheart"

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2001)

Banderas plays the 13th warrior in this clumsy adventure flick about a bunch of badass Vikings who duke it out with the mysterious Wendol....yeah, right. The story is ill-conceived and poorly laid out with some dialogue shuffling in the beginning to get everyone speaking the same language. Fight sequences are tightly shot and poorly staged and overall the film is lackluster. No sex or nudity...just a lot of blood & guts. Nonetheless, there is a certain masculine charm about the devil-may-care way the Vikings live to die which makes this worth watching if you need something to go with your popcorn.

Footnote: I was surprised by the number of user comments for this flick on IMDB.com. Prior to Tivo'ing it, I'd never heard of the movie and assumed it was one of those low budget losers. I must have missed the hype...the only reason so many could have written so much about so little.