Pleasantly Surprised!

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2004)

I had been anticipating the opening of this movie for quite some time and saw it on opening day. I've followed Patrick Wilson's career go from Broadway, to small screen, and was excited to see his big screen debut. I was expecting the film to not be that good, just because of tired subject matter, directorial/actor issues, etc. but I absolutely loved it! Besides the beautiful set and costumes, the actors were great. The general of the Mexican army was positively sinister-such a wonderful interpretation and performance of that character! The script was really good, considering all that it had to tie together and communicate in a short period of time- both the battle scenes and normal scenes were woven together very well. It also had some great one-liners for unexpected comic relief- especially Billy Bob Thorton's character, Davey Crockett. And the music was fantastic! Maybe it's my down-home, Midwestern upbringing, but I thought it was really good and strongly encourage everyone to see it. Don't listen to bad reviews/people who haven't seen it/people who think only Texans like it/whatever...It's a great movie and worth the ticket!