Maudlin to the extreme!

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2000)

The Patriot is a mere shadow of "Braveheart", to me one of the best Mel G. films. Even in as serious a film as Braveheart, Mel simply could not leave the film totally serious, but had to insert, happily only a few, "Mel Gibsonisms" -- funny little asides that had nothing to do with the subject at hand. Patriot was FULL of Gibsonisms, totally maudlin, and replete with many Hollywood cliches such as the evil English colonel leaping up from the dead (on his face, by the way) to kill Gibson's oldest son. Give me a break!! The only cliche missing was the slowly turning background fan casting shadows into a smoke filled room. The probable reason that didn't make it in the film was that it was slightly anachronistic.
"Patriot" was sort of historically correct, warm, fuzzy, sad, showed the historical harshness of the Brits (see N. Ireland), and a nice intro to the 4th of July season. Great? Far from it.