Reviews

I won't get into too much comparison between the BBC version and the Swedishversion. They both have their strengths. Personally, I prefer the slow,deliberate pacing of the Swedish version but I can understand why most Americans would prefer the faster paced BBC show. My praise, though, is for Krister Henriksson as Kurt Wallander who captures the main character and Fredrik Gunnarsson who plays Svartman, a supporting role. In their hands, these are real people. You should watch the show just for their acting! The plots are intricate, the characters real and filming is superb. Underlying many of the plots are some of the hidden tensions in Swedish life such as tensions caused by immigration, skinheads, and even the role of the Lutheran Church. All these issues are handled subtly and tend to form the background for a particular episode.

Be forewarned that while there are comic moments in the film, it is primarily a dark film about innocents being caught up in a war outside of their control. Jackie Chan plays a farmer who was drafted into his kingdom's army. He is the last surviving member of his family and wants nothing more than to return to the land and raise a family. He survives a horrible battle and captures the enemy general. If he can get the general back to the capital, he can get five acres of land as a reward and become a farmer again. It is one of Jackie Chan's best performances but don't go expecting Shanghai Knights. Beautifully photographed with a compelling story line it is, in the end a melancholy film.

I watched this film without having read any reviews or heard anything about it. The fact that it contained Selma Blair, Amy Smart and Kevin Pollack was enough of a recommendation for me. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I was not disappointed. In fact, I was somewhat startled by the number of negative reactions. I guess they are fans of shoot em ups while I like a more atmospheric, intellectual movie. This is not a great movie but it is a good movie. I thought of it as a homage to the psychological thrillers of the forties and fifties. Pollak, as always, is superb and both Blair and Smart do credible turns. The twist at the end is fairly predictable but at the same time satisfying. Well worth watching, at home, on a chilly evening.

This is an awful movie. The acting is wooden, the sets are unhistorical and the central drama of the gospels is missing. It is as if the movie makers set out to make a tableaux set meant to inspire piety rather than understanding. This is a Sunday School story of Christ. Hunter simply doesn't know what to do with the role so he does nothing. Robert Ryan turns John the Baptist into a boring figure, which is quite an accomplishment.

Why is Barabbas so important in this rendering? What liberties did the film makers take to get some good old action scenes into the film. Why is the set for Joseph and Mary's house about ten times larger than a real house would have been at the time. And why does no one look Jewish in the movie?

Rip Torn as Judas Iscariot and Brigid Bazlen as Salome give a good effort in a lost cause. The score is superb but how much more interesting it might have been if they had used music contemporary to the time of the gospel instead of the lush Hollywood epic style of the late fifties?

I'm not surprised that some people are bored by this film. It has a very deliberate pace and doesn't fall into the typical action film trap of keeping your attention by constant movement. Instead, it is a subtle and spare portrait of the isolation and emptiness of a professional hit man. Clooney does a fine job of portraying a middle aged hit man who has found himself alone and unfulfilled at a critical point in his life. The film is the anti-Bourne film. It does not glamorize the life of a paid assassin. For those who want violence, murder and action, this isn't your film. For those who want to reflect on the emptiness of such a life, you may find the film rewarding.