Another Braveheart? No, but not a bad try.

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2000)

I went to see The Patriot with some trepidation; could Mel
Gibson match the directing and acting of Braveheart? The answer, unfortunately, was no. However, he didn't do a
bad job by any means. The film is impressive, with all of
the leads giving solid performances. The battles are spectacular; usually CG (computer generated) extras, such
as were used here instead of armies of real actors, give
me problems. Here, though, they were unobtrusive and realistic. Of course, being a very picky fellow, I had problems with the
film. Where Braveheart was very Hollywood in parts, The
Patriot was so in spades. Be warned: slow-motion sequences set to swelling orchestras abound. Emotional
manipulation is overwhelming. The film is fundamentally
predictable. On the other hand, it looks so good and does a
good enough job of keeping us involved that I for one am
willing to partially forgive that. 7 out of 10.