Jason KingPrince of Persia (4/10)
June 3rd 2010 04:00
:
It's Been Done All Before
Category: No Category
Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present "Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time," an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince named Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time - a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. Throw in that his family think he killed his father, his father was or is the King, his brothers want to kill him, his Uncle is a sociopath and has freaky assassins hunting them down and you have Prince of Persia to a T.
Directed by Mike Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"). The cast includes Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina, and a screenplay by Boaz Yakin and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard from a screen story by Jordan Mechne.
This film is poop. It does have some enjoyable bits and the only reason I went to see it was to perve on one of my screen favourites, Jake Gyllenhaal. And he does look incredibly hot in this film and has buffed up very nicely. I think a lot of teenage boys will also fall in love with Gemma Arterton.
The plot is a B grade mix of bits from Indiana Jones, some more bits from Tombraider, a lot of The Mummy and sprinkled on top with Days of Our Lives. The plot is just silly and the chemistry is lacking. The film is further proof to me that Gyllenhaal plays for my team and my chances just went up
It is a Bruckheimer production and he makes no excuses for his seat-filling-popcorn-required filming. Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Gone in 60 Seconds) and Micheal Bay (Transformers) are pure megaplex cinema movie makers. They don't go in for awards, they go in for the big action, limited, ridiculous or no plot films. This is what I was looking forward to but even this failed to impress me.
Sir Ben Kinglsley has sold his soul and now only appears in mediocrity, Gyllenhaal wanted to do another action film, after The Day After Tomorrow and I suppose wanted to come across as an action star. He does pull off the action hero for me but besides his looks his acting is kind of B grade and while his action sequences that he did all by himself look awesome, his chemistry with Arterton is woeful. The little bickering they do throughout the film is similar to Indy Jones and his many love interests but Jake is no Harrison with the ladies. He was, however, a super gay cowboy and freak in Donnie Darko.
Arterton is stunning and we will be seeing more of her but she is just boring and unbelievable as her character. The one character I truly enjoyed was Alfred Molina as the nutty, sun burnt brain sheik. He was fun and I had not seen ostrich races before so enjoyed this
It is surprising to see Mike Newell directing this, after his superb film Four Weddings and Funeral he set himself up as a seriously good director and then made Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I loved. I think what attracted him to this film was his work on The Young Indiana Jones TV show he has been working on. But really, I don't think big action is his forte. He does pull off some ok CGI but a lot of the CGI scenes while they look good are pretty much unbelievable but I also have no idea why I am trying to find things in a film with this plot to be believable.
What I have noticed of late is that directors and studios are making limited gambles and taking even less chances on films. Studios seem to only make things that have pretty much been done before and are a safe bet for bums on seats. What they fail to realise is that the public is not as stupid as they would believe and eventually all these big budget pieces of pooh will not be made anymore as people won't go and see them. If you look at films that have taken chances this, or last year, like Avatar, while its story has been told a million times the way in which it was told was a big gamble to spend half a billion dollars on but JC's skill and gambling of course paid off. Same with his ex-wife's film The Hurt Locker. It is different, it is told differently and it is a seriously well made film. These two films not only cleaned out the box office but made a shitload of cash. My conclusion is people want to see good films that are a complete package, they look good, are acted good and are plain brilliant. Prince of Persia tanked in the US and is doing the same here. The reason - it is crap.
One thing that is pissing me off about this film is people complaining because the film stars American (or English) actors and not Middle Eastern actors. It has even gone so far as the film being labelled racist as is the US film industry. What I say to this is - if you are making a film have whoever the hell you want in it - it is not a documentary they are making here you idiots - it is a big action US film that is set in Persia. My god, why have none of you gone crazy that Jesus is always white in films. There - I feel much better now.
The film is out now and while it would have been amazing as a tele-movie it needed to be a lot better for cinema. Enjoy it for Jake watching and some silly B grade, no brainer action. Worth (4/10).
Directed by Mike Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"). The cast includes Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina, and a screenplay by Boaz Yakin and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard from a screen story by Jordan Mechne.
This film is poop. It does have some enjoyable bits and the only reason I went to see it was to perve on one of my screen favourites, Jake Gyllenhaal. And he does look incredibly hot in this film and has buffed up very nicely. I think a lot of teenage boys will also fall in love with Gemma Arterton.
The plot is a B grade mix of bits from Indiana Jones, some more bits from Tombraider, a lot of The Mummy and sprinkled on top with Days of Our Lives. The plot is just silly and the chemistry is lacking. The film is further proof to me that Gyllenhaal plays for my team and my chances just went up
It is a Bruckheimer production and he makes no excuses for his seat-filling-popcorn-required filming. Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Gone in 60 Seconds) and Micheal Bay (Transformers) are pure megaplex cinema movie makers. They don't go in for awards, they go in for the big action, limited, ridiculous or no plot films. This is what I was looking forward to but even this failed to impress me.
Sir Ben Kinglsley has sold his soul and now only appears in mediocrity, Gyllenhaal wanted to do another action film, after The Day After Tomorrow and I suppose wanted to come across as an action star. He does pull off the action hero for me but besides his looks his acting is kind of B grade and while his action sequences that he did all by himself look awesome, his chemistry with Arterton is woeful. The little bickering they do throughout the film is similar to Indy Jones and his many love interests but Jake is no Harrison with the ladies. He was, however, a super gay cowboy and freak in Donnie Darko.
Arterton is stunning and we will be seeing more of her but she is just boring and unbelievable as her character. The one character I truly enjoyed was Alfred Molina as the nutty, sun burnt brain sheik. He was fun and I had not seen ostrich races before so enjoyed this
It is surprising to see Mike Newell directing this, after his superb film Four Weddings and Funeral he set himself up as a seriously good director and then made Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I loved. I think what attracted him to this film was his work on The Young Indiana Jones TV show he has been working on. But really, I don't think big action is his forte. He does pull off some ok CGI but a lot of the CGI scenes while they look good are pretty much unbelievable but I also have no idea why I am trying to find things in a film with this plot to be believable.
What I have noticed of late is that directors and studios are making limited gambles and taking even less chances on films. Studios seem to only make things that have pretty much been done before and are a safe bet for bums on seats. What they fail to realise is that the public is not as stupid as they would believe and eventually all these big budget pieces of pooh will not be made anymore as people won't go and see them. If you look at films that have taken chances this, or last year, like Avatar, while its story has been told a million times the way in which it was told was a big gamble to spend half a billion dollars on but JC's skill and gambling of course paid off. Same with his ex-wife's film The Hurt Locker. It is different, it is told differently and it is a seriously well made film. These two films not only cleaned out the box office but made a shitload of cash. My conclusion is people want to see good films that are a complete package, they look good, are acted good and are plain brilliant. Prince of Persia tanked in the US and is doing the same here. The reason - it is crap.
One thing that is pissing me off about this film is people complaining because the film stars American (or English) actors and not Middle Eastern actors. It has even gone so far as the film being labelled racist as is the US film industry. What I say to this is - if you are making a film have whoever the hell you want in it - it is not a documentary they are making here you idiots - it is a big action US film that is set in Persia. My god, why have none of you gone crazy that Jesus is always white in films
. There - I feel much better now.The film is out now and while it would have been amazing as a tele-movie it needed to be a lot better for cinema. Enjoy it for Jake watching and some silly B grade, no brainer action. Worth (4/10).
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Comment by Anonymous
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Gemma sounded like bloody Betty Spencer!! Jake was acting like he was in another movie entirely, what I have no idea ...
I agree, the only character/performance I enjoyed as Alfred Molina, whose voice I recognised first ... I'm good on voices as I recognised Robert Duvall in The Road with his voice first.
Comment by Anonymous
Hurt locker actually bombed badly. Might recoup some funds from DVD after the Oscar win but it is in no way a hit.
You will continue to see the video game/remake/sequels as they will always bring in a solid first week result.
Comment by Jason King
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Anon - originally The Hurt Locker was going straight to video but the film was viewed by some ppl that liked it and decided otherwise. I don't know what you consider a bomb - sure it was not a massive hit that takes in squillions of idiot teenager $$$ but it has more than tripled it's production budget which is way more than most of the big blockbusters that pretty much break even or scrape in a an earning. So far Hurt Locker production budget $15-MIL - takings $50MIL. Great return on investment.
Avatar - budget estimated at about $600MIL US - takings so far - $2.7BIL - that is insane!!!
Prince of Persia - Budget - $200MIL - takings so far - a bit shy of $139MIL
All figures are worldwide figures care of Box Office Mojo
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Comment by JohnDoe
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On the topic of cross casting there is an interesting debate raging about having a black James Bond or Spiderman, which I think goes against the characters essence....but then I thought that Roger Moore also went against Ian Fleming's intention and comic books often alternate race.....On the other side I am all for Mickey Rourke as Genghis Khan in John Milius' new film....but if an Caucasian Anglo were to play Bruce Lee I would have a problem...seems its on a character by character basis for me.
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