Kings & Castles – Action Hero Movies

Guess what – Hollywood’s at it again! The far-right anti-Islamic opening to this movie, has some good action, it’s just a shame it’s tarred with encouraging such a sentiment in its impressionable action-loving audience. Fortunately, it soon shows things from another view point, so it’s not all bad.

Morgan Freedom does a decent job as the imprisoned warrior Arab freed by Robin Hood who himself is played quite well by Kevin Costner (of Waterworld) as he makes his own escape from foreign lands after being held captive there for 5 years. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio does well as Lady Marian. And Alan Rickman performs very convincingly as the main antagonist – Sheriff of Nottingham – he’s a very snidey, ruthless, unpleasant character but that’s exactly what his role is meant to be, so he does a great job in that respect. I dare say he must be drawing parallels from his real-life persona in order to perform so convincingly – that’s probably the biggest backhanded compliment I’ve ever dished out, but it’s so true. We’re also treated to a decent minor role by Christian Slater as a young man of the woods. Nick Brimble did alright as Little John, ‘best man of the woods’. And Michael Wincott does a great job as Guy of Gisbourne – the main baddie early on, who gets killed by his cousin, the Sheriff of Nottingham, for failing to quell the trouble from Robin Hood so many times already.

There’s a fair amount of cool action and worthwhile drama in this movie, but much of the action and drama is also distressing – unpleasant to watch, for those who prefer smooth action hero movies without the grit & gristle.

Also, why depict the Celts as savage barbarians? Celtic people are the indigenous people of the UK, driven to the mountainous areas of Wales, Scotland and Ireland by the invaders & oppressors of years gone by. They’re warriors but they’re also general friendly, nature-respecting people. Again, it’s just Hollywood spreading racial & cultural disrespect as usual.

Overall I rate this movie as Decent considering how strong a movie it is with all its cast members, props, plot and script attributes. I must confess to skipping forward a few times during the less pleasant scenes, especially since I’ve seen this movie so many times before. If it were a bit more condensed around the more boring and agitating bits, and went to town a bit more with its existing creativity and props during the action scenes, and made better use of all its superstar actors, it could have been a much better movie for my taste, but as it stands, it’s just Decent – a level better than OK – a couple levels better than barely Watchable. Not quite on a par with the thoroughly captivating movies I’ve rated Pretty Good, and a couple levels down from the Very Good movies reviewed on this site thus far.

The ending was pretty good too – quite fitting for a movie rated higher than just OK. It had a good build up and sustained its levels of energy and creativity for a good half hour, and it ultimately ended with everything working out just fine. We were even treated to a short scene of Sean Connery playing the returning King Richard, at the very end. Perhaps his convincing brief performance in his role here inspired the somewhat similar movie First Knight (1995) where he played King Arthur and had plenty of screen time doing it.

It’s not Kevin Costner’s best action movie – I rated Waterworld a level higher than this one. But it’s up there – Robin Hood is probably his second best movie to my taste, just ahead of The Bodyguard (co-starring Whitney Houston).

Within the first 5 minutes we get Richard Gere giving an entertaining exhibition of competitive swordsmanship, ending in a deep martial arts truth that was also the key lesson behind Bruce Lee’s unfinished movie Game Of Death from over two decades prior, and it’s already clear that First Knight (1995) is a set to be a classic with a strong cast and a strong script working in tandem to create a memorable, adventurous action movie set in the realm of King Arthur of Camelot.

There is a bit of drama genre between the action scenes, but it’s generally very well composed – well poised, engaging and not irritating. Actors are as fine as the script they’re following.

The action itself is not too monotonous either – this movie features scene after scene of creative action concept – each one quite different from the next. The creativity & excitement dries up slightly towards the back end of the movie as the mood turns to warfare and betrayal, and the scenes become a bit overly intense, suspenseful and elongated – but only slightly. Then ending is not a bad one, compared to most action movies which usually have underwhelming endings. There’s still a respectable level of plot twisting and creativity towards the end – some would even call it a masterpiece ending – whatever floats your boat. For me, the first two thirds of the movie are considerably more fun than the last third.

First Knight is a good story well played – it’s a long, fairly enjoyable movie. But it doesn’t give the same buzz of the movies rated Pretty Good so I’ve ranked it one step lower than them. But it’s more than just OK. I’d say it’s a Decent movie for action hero movie connoisseurs.

While Richard Gere (as Lancelot) is by far the main figure in this movie, and Sean Connery‘s role (as King Arthur) is comparatively minor, it’s still a significant role – enough to call him a co-star of the show, considering his star power. The lead female (Julia Ormond as Guinevere) is also a major figure in this movie – you could call her a co-star too. The chief baddie is played by Ben Cross (as Maleagant). All four core cast members fit in well and perform fantastically. I’m by no means a drama genre connoisseur, but this movie blurs the boundaries between action to drama more than I can usually tolerate, yet without problem in this case. Well done to everyone involved.