Worth all of the sitting, watching, and eating popcorn

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2006)

I'll definitely have to give credit to a lot of commentators before me for being right.
I don't really remember seeing Mel Gibson in a movie that I can name off the top of my head, but he gave an excellent performance as Benjamin Martin--a family man with a heck of a lot of conflicting emotions over the American Revolution and how it affected him and those he cared about.
Heath Ledger, as eldest Martin son Gabriel, gave a similarly admirable performance as a soldier honored to be fighting for a more-than-worthy cause. Need I also mention Lisa Brenner as Anne Howard, Gabriel's significant other? She hit the nail on the head, too, capturing the patriotic spirit.
I was kind of surprised to see Jason Isaacs as Col. Tavington (I first saw him as Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), but I can pronounce him a BLOODY BRILLIANT CASTING CHOICE for the role of a villain who really takes no prisoners (or if he does, he's reluctantly following orders from his superiors).
The movie was a little bloodier than I expected upon viewing it for the first time (it definitely earned its "R" rating there), but hey, it's a war movie, and I've grown used to it. Overall, a 10 out of 10.