Avoid this like a root canal

Rating: 5/10 (3 May 2004)

When I first saw the trailer I was a bit apprehensive about watching it in actuality but the historical significance of the film is what actually brought me to buy the ticket for this movie. There is not much to play around with the story since the subject matter is based on a historical event. There are 2 previous versions of The Alamo listed in IMDB, one made in 1960 and the earlier was in 1936 anything before that was probably the event itself. Kidding aside, I haven't seen the earlier films hence I cannot make a good comparison. This 2004 version is in my opinion too Hollywood for my taste because they are sticking to the tried and true formula typical of movies made in Hollywood in the last ten years or so. There is the typical `braveheart' scene where Gen. Houston played by Dennis Quaid pep talks his men before the obvious slaughter of the Mexican army. There was a bit of an overkill in the final minutes of the movie where Houston's men began wantonly killing Sta. Ana's troops as they retreat from their `Waterloo' so to speak. Jason Patric as knife fighter James Bowie wasn't too convincing as he tried to play the funny guy against Patric Wilson's serious character William Travis. Billy Bob Thornton as the legendary Davy Crockett seemed like a traveling court jester in this movie, I almost thought he would burst into song somewhere in the film but I'm glad he didn't. Overall, I felt this film failed to develop the characters to a respectable level and heavily relied on the battle scenes to carry it through, sad to say it could have been made better, if they had a good script to begin with. If your interested in historical films about America and its wars in the 19th century I would recommend watching the Oscar winning film Glory.