Got two hours to spare? Not enough if you want to see Troy…However, if you can carve out three hours, you might want to see Brad Pitt stretch his Achilles
*(Editor's Note: During the 2002 season, cornerback Brian Kelly agreed to be Buccaneers.com's 'Corner Critic.' In this role, Kelly reviewed a movie almost every week, which is about how often this noted film buff makes it to the cinema. Kelly's chest injury early in 2003 put the Corner Critic on hold, but he is healthy again and ready to resume his role as the Bucs' resident reviewer.
Kelly first picked up his interest in film while a student at USC. Friends in the school's noted film school got him hooked, and he's been a movie buff ever since. For Buccaneers.com, Kelly will concentrate mostly on major theatrical releases – some of his recent viewings include The Passion of the Christ and Man on Fire - and in coming weeks he will be adding more technical aspects to his review. In the meantime, Kelly takes a quick look at the epic drama Troy, * touching briefly on the plot, the actors, his likes and dislikes and dispensing a review on a scale of one to five footballs, plus an overall recommendation.)
It took only a few minutes of screen time in Thelma & Louise for Brad Pitt to establish himself as a sex symbol, but many of the roles he has accepted since that 1990 turn as hitch-hiker J.D. have seemingly been designed to prove his range. Se7en, 12 Monkeys, True Romance, Meet Joe Black, Seven Years in Tibet, Snatch, Fight Club, even the disastrous Cool World - an unusual cast of characters.
But Brad Pitt fans, many of whom still favor him for the same reason they loved him in Thelma & Louise, haven't been treated to a Pitt starring role since 2001's well-received Ocean's 11. Well, he's back, and in a big way.
After all, it doesn't get much bigger – or longer – than The Iliad.
Pitt stars as Achilles in Troy, a big-budget action flick that kicks off the summer movie season. The movie has Homer's dramatic source material, buzz-worthy actors like Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana and lots of CGI effects. Does it have what it takes to command your attention for nearly three hours? Kelly takes a look.
**
Troy
Starring: Brad Pitt, Brian Cox, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Brendan Gleeson, Diane Kruger Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson Written by: Homer, David Benioff Rating: R (graphic violence, sexuality, nudity) Running time: 2 hour, 43 minutes
Brian's Plot Synopsis:
First off, let's assume most of us have not read The Iliad. Fair assumption, I think.
Okay, here's the basic plot of Troy, based on that epic poem:
Troy and Sparta are making peace until Orlando Bloom's character, Paris of Troy, steals Helen away from Menelaus, the King of Sparta, played by Gleeson. Menelaus intends to attack Troy to get Helen back and asks for help from his brother, Agamemnon, played by Cox
Agamemnon has been looking for an excuse to overtake Troy, anyway, and he enlists the services of the mercenary Achilles. Achilles, played by Pitt, is a great warrior and a man some people think is immortal. However, the character doesn't really believe in the influence of the gods. He believes that man controlled his own destiny and even made reference to that in the dialogue several times, with lines such as, "I don't know anything about gods, but I know what I can do."
Many fight scenes follow, of course, and I won't play spoiler by announcing who won. But there was the famous Trojan Horse scene, of course, near the climax. The Spartans used the giant wooden horse to get inside Troy, which took it as a gift. The warriors hid inside the horse and came out later that night.
Brian's Impressions:
Well, if you're a Brad Pitt fan, there's definitely a lot of flesh for the ladies. There are a number of Pitt sex scenes.
The opening fight scene was impressive and it set the tone for the movie. It lets you know that Achilles is the ultimate warrior, the character you believe cannot be beat.
One of the clever things, to me, was how they were able to fight in combat without all the weapons were familiar with today, without guns and missiles and so on. They used the bow and arrow like it was the ultimate rifle. In one interesting scene, they took tree branches and made a big ball out of it. They lit fire to the ball, then pushed it down and let it roll over a village and start it on fire.
Another interesting point of the movie was the sacrifice scene, the way they handled a burial after somebody died. They really had high respect for those who died in battle, even on the other side. The warriors for the opposing forces really paid honor to their fallen opponents.
The Performances:
I thought the cast was pretty good, as were the settings and the costume work. Obviously, they used a lot of effects to set up the big battle scenes, but it was the actors and the costume work that really pulled them off.
I hadn't seen Brad Pitt in this type of role, other than Fight Club, but he pulled it off. He was believable as a warrior, as was Eric Bana as Hector, who is the greatest warrior for the Trojans.
Complaints:
This movie didn't need to be any longer than two hours and 15 minutes, but it ran nearly three hours long. There were a lot of great action scenes, and obviously there had to be some exposition scenes, but a lot of the dialogue was too long and drawn out.
The Recommendation:
Overall, I would give this move two-and-a-half footballs (out of five), simply because it was stretched out a bit too long.
I would recommend this movie if you have almost three hours to kill and basically want to see some good action. To me, it was too drawn out, and that's why only give it two-and-a-half stars. It was a legitimate blockbuster with good acting and a lot of money spent, but it just didn't hold my interest for three hours.
