I laughed a lot.

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2004)

Almost every time Brad Pitt opened his mouth in fact. He has been very good in some of his movies but he is so badly miscast here, that he unbalances the movie. His fight scenes aren't bad, but after listening to him struggle through the admittedly awful lines he has to say, I found the idea of him as a warrior just as funny as the rest of his performance. He even does a bad Marlon Brando impersonation shouting for HECTAAAAAAH at the gates of Troy. By this stage, I wanted anyone to smack him in the heel, I didn't much care who.
Eric Bana works hard, looks great and is the most attractive character in the movie. At least, he has gravitas and some idea of what he is supposed to be doing. Rose Byrne is another who comes off well. Unlike the 2 actors who play the lovers. They are completely unbelievable, Helen has more chemistry with Hector than Paris. Peter O'Toole has one great scene, the rest is filler. Brian Cox shouts entertainingly. Poor Saffron Burrows is given nothing to do, neither is Sean Bean, who would make a great Odysseus in a different movie. The movie is packed with very good, professional actors but the script is so silly that the performers spend much of their time saying or doing unintentionally funny things.
The battle scenes are OK (the night fight with the fireballs in particular is good to look at) and at least they don't involve much talking.
A movie like this should drag you in, away from the real world and have you off in the Trojan War with them and it does nothing of the sort. Still, I found it so funny that I enjoyed it in a masochistic sort of way.