A breakneck ride into rudderless inanity.

Rating: 4/10 (12 July 2001)

This "film" was really more of a scattershot exercise in pointless, mindless visual excess and absurd bombast. Rarely does it ordain to slow down and focus on character, motivation or theme. When such attempts are made, they are outright laughable. At times, early in this picture, the breakneck pace, absurdly wafer-thin awestruck dialogue and farcical bouts of violence, do amuse in an admittedly mindless way, but as the movie progresses, such hilarity (presumably unintentional for the most part) is harder and harder to find. It frankly descends into what is literally a barrage of pointless, scampering special effects-endowed images. The characters are scant, of course, with the actors probably better, but failing to truly rise above the material. The best that can be said about the child actor is that he is less inappropriate than the one in "Enemy at the Gates". Fraser, and certainly Weisz fail to truly characterize. Fraser is tolerable, and at times comically adept, but presumably is wasted in this film. John Hannah is relatively effective in the film's context, but the character is rather a tired stereotype. The least said about plot and script the better. Oh, and The Rock? A pointless appearance in keeping with the arbitrary "qualities" of the film. It is indeed no "Citizen Kane", and folks, it is yet another film that makes one wish more mainstream producers, studios and directors at least aimed for the vision and entertainment offered by the man Welles. Rating:- **/*****