The Guard (7/10): Gleeson in top form when working with either of the McDonagh brothers.

“Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, these men are armed and dangerous, and you being an FBI agent you're more used to shooting at unarmed women and children.”

John Michael McDonagh’s feature film debut is as irreverent as the main character of this movie played by Brendan Gleeson who isn’t afraid of the repercussions his words might have on the rest of his peers. Gleeson plays an unorthodox Irish policeman of a small local community who when attending a meeting with an American FBI agent played by Don Cheadle makes a number of racist remarks such as “I thought only black lads were drug dealers?” and then justifies his behavior by claiming “I'm Irish. Racism is part of my culture.” The Guard is basically a vehicle for Gleeson to make all sorts of irreverent remarks and that is where most of the laughs come from as you combine McDonagh’s witty screenplay with Gleeson’s performance. We’d seen Gleeson team up with McDonagh’s brother in the past working with a similar sense of Irish humor in In Bruges. Your enjoyment for this film depends on your appreciation for this style of humor, which is very different from American comedies, since it is dry, rude, and insolent. McDonagh isn’t worried about being politically correct and Gleeson’s perfect delivery of each line made The Guard an entertaining experience for me. The humor doesn’t always work like in In Bruges, but at least it hits most of its notes. Gleeson and Cheadle have a couple of great scenes together, but there are also some great supporting performances from Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, and David Wilmot. 

The opening scene is one of the funniest I’ve seen in recent months and it sets the tone of the film perfectly with its dark humor. A group of young kids are driving at a high speed in their sport vehicle and just as they pass a local policeman and the camera focuses on him we hear a loud crash. Inspector Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) walks to the sight of the accident and searches the pockets of the victims finding some drugs and taking them while making some witty remark about not wanting to tell their mother’s what he has found. We are then introduced to Gerry and his confrontational personality when he teams up with FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) who is in the small Irish town investigating a multimillion dollar drug trafficking operation. Gerry doesn’t seem too interested in the drug case, but when these drug dealers cross the line and try to intimidate him he decides they’ve gone to far. 

The movie could’ve easily fallen into predictable territory centering on the odd-couple humor, but thanks to Gleeson’s performance and McDonagh’s script it stands out as an original film. The Guard deconstructs much of the detective procedural elements we’ve seen in other movies and McDonagh seems to have a lot of fun doing this as he directs his own material. His directorial debut showed a lot of promise, and surprisingly in his sophomore film, Calvary, he shies away from the genre and enters into more dramatic territory although continuing to work with Gleeson. It seems the two have established a solid relationship as the director’s writing seems perfect for the actor’s delivery. The Guard is an unconventional character study that had me laughing during most of its runtime.  

Kingsman: The Secret Service (6/10): Uneven at times, but it shows a lot of potential for a future franchise

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

Kingsman is director Matthew Vaughn’s fifth feature film and there was a lot of speculation over this movie considering he had chosen to direct this over the sequel to his highly successful X-Men First Class. He was also in talks to direct the new Star Wars franchise, but Vaughn wanted to adapt Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ comic book “The Secret Service” instead. A comic book I had never heard of, but Vaughn’s dedication to the material is inspired by his love for the old James Bond films, and this adaptation plays out as a love letter to those former movies with fascinating villains and a far fetched plot. Kingsman is rich in style and the film is beautifully directed by Vaughn who has always proved his abilities behind the camera. His 2004 debut, Layer Cake, starring Daniel Craig might actually be the reason why he has now become the new James Bond. Vaughn, who had produced some of Guy Ritchie’s films, was heavily influenced by him in that first film, but he has established himself now with his own personal style. My favorite film from Vaughn is still Kick-Ass which felt fresh when it first came out and established itself as a refreshing parody of super hero films. My expectations for Kingsman grew when I heard that this comic book adaptation was written by the same person who wrote the Kick-Ass comic because I was a huge fan of that film. However, the idea didn’t feel as fresh this time and I had some issues with a couple of violent scenes that took me out of the movie. Kingsman does do to spy movies what Kick-Ass did to super hero movies, but if you saw that film you could expect some of the dark turns and twists that were going to come here. It is very similar in style and some of the characters go through the same fate but it is still fun and entertaining. 

Kingsman centers on a British spy organization run by Arthur (Michael Caine) that is trying to stop a global threat from a billionaire tech innovator named Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). When one of the spies dies during a mission, the agency decides to recruit a new one. Each one of the spies chooses a young candidate and Harry Hart (Colin Firth) puts his eyes on a street kid named Eggsy (Taron Egerton) who shows a lot of promise. The recruits have to go through an intense program under the guidance of their instructor Merlin (Mark Strong). Meanwhile Harry continues to investigate Valentine and try to discover what he is up to as several celebrities and government officials begin to disappear.

The film felt bipolar at times. There are incredibly fun action sequences that are directed very well by Vaughn, but at the same time there are some disturbing violent scenes that take place in a church. The violence is cartoonish, but there are instances where it does feel out of place. I don’t know why some of those scenes took me out of the movie because Vaughn is just having fun with the action scenes, but they just felt out of place. The things that did work best for me in Kingsman are the strong performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Firth who play off each other extremely well. The scenes they share together are wonderful and their self referential movie talk is hilarious. Valentine has a lisp which reminds us of some of the physical dysfunctions that the early villains from the Bond franchise had. Vaughn introduces small elements like this as he pays homage to some of those entertaining films. Newcomer, Taron Egerton, also delivers the good as this young street smart kid who is learning the ways of becoming a gentlemen. His scenes with Firth are another highlight of the film. Perhaps the most entertaining thing about Kingsman is the recruiting process the kids have to go through. One of the other potential candidates is Roxy who is played very well by Sophie Cookson. She shares excellent chemistry with Egerton. Mark Strong might be my favorite character in this film and he also gets plenty of screen time. Sofia Boutella also delivers a memorable role as one of Valentine’s sidekicks. Kingsman is highly entertaining and has many positive things going for it, but there are a couple of disturbing scenes that felt out of place. Despite this, Vaughn is still five for five and a director I will continue to look forward to.

The Imitation Game (8/10): Another Biopic powered by a strong lead performance from Cumberbatch

“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

It is easy to fall in love with The Imitation Game because it is a fact-based film about a man who in Winston Churchill’s words “made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.” Alan Turing’s story is one worth being portrayed on film because he played a huge role in shaping our history as one of the pioneers of modern-day computing. In school we are all taught what a huge factor the soldiers and allied forces played in winning the war after the Normandy landings, but little is known about these code breakers that were able to crack the unbreakable Enigma machine that the Germans used during the War. From the opening scene, Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (Headhunters), catches our attention and delivers a powerful (although by the books) biopic. The film isn’t groundbreaking and it follows most of the genre conventions biopics do, but it does so through some great performances and a solid production design that immerses us into the decades of the 40’s and 50’s. The film is told in non-linear fashion beginning with how Alan began being investigated by the Brtish authorities for indecent behavior. It later goes back 10 years to when Britain was at war with Nazi Germany and where Alan Turing began working with other scholars trying to crack the enemy’s communication codes. The film jumps back and forth as we also get some background information of Alan’s youth where he was introduced to the world of codes and cyphering. Alan’s story is fascinating and deserves a big screen adaptation as strong as this one because despite being a genius and having saved thousands of lives by shortening the war, he was disgraced and shamed for his homosexual behavior when he should’ve been hailed as a war hero. The film’s greatest strength is the inspiring fact-based story itself.

Benedict Cumberbatch has delivered several groundbreaking performances over his career, but I doubt he’s been as great as he is in The Imitation Game. Cumberbatch transforms himself completely and becomes Alan Turing. He invested himself for this role and it completely payed off. He portrays the conflicting emotions and inner turmoil of his character in an authentic and realistic way. Cumberbatch and Tyldum do an amazing job of honoring a man who never received the credit he deserved during his lifetime. Cumberbatch’s performance and Tyldum’s attention to detail in this period drama is what stands out other than the inspiring story adapted by Graham Moore. Keira Knightley and Mark Strong both deliver solid supporting performances as well. Knightley has received a lot of praise for her role here and deservedly so, but I was most pleased with Strong’s strong performance as the MI6 director, Stewart Menzies. It’s hard not to enjoy this film considering its story alone is fascinating, but Tyldum does deliver a solid biopic by working with a talented cast, having an eye for period detail, and hiring Alexandre Desplat as the composer giving the already emotional and touching story more depth.

My Review: Zero Dark Thirty (9/10)

¨I’m going to smoke everyone involved in the op and then I’m going to kill Osama bin Laden.¨

The passion, determination, and single-minded pursuit of a female CIA operative to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden was the film that the Academy Award winning writer and director decided to pursue after their success in The Hurt Locker. Zero Dark Thirty is so intense and suspenseful that you just want Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal to continue working together forever. They make other modern war films look really bad when held up to the standards of their recent work together. Bigelow has developed such a craft and expertise as a filmmaker that during some moments of the film (especially the final 25 minute raid) you feel like you are watching a documentary of actual footage of the manhunt instead of a fictional film. She is as passionate about her work as her lead character is obsessed with hunting down this man. We can’t argue that Bigelow benefits from Boal’s extraordinary script, which manages to reduce a decade long hunt into 150 minutes of detailed procedural work without taking political sides or focusing on revenge nonsense. It just takes such a realist approach that you never feel manipulated by Bigelow which would have been easy to do considering the subject matter. This is in my opinion the best film dealing with pos 9-11 events thanks to Bigelow’s ability to remain emotionally detached and focus on her craft. Under the weight of the heavy subject matter, she somehow manages to make this film more about a character study than an actual manhunt. There is really one main character in this film as the rest of characters come and go, and without delving into her past and focusing on the decade long pursuit of bin Laden the story centers around her, and it is a very interesting psychological study of what motivates her. Jessica Chastain is just so fascinating in this film, that she single handedly carries this movie and gives the best performance of her career.

The film opens in black with several voiceovers of calls from the World Trade center during the 9-11 attacks. It is a very emotional opening scene as we later are introduced to the main character, Maya (Jessica Chastain), who has been sent to Pakistan by the CIA to hunt down bin Laden. The first place we see her is in an interrogation room where her partner Dan (Jason Clarke) is torturing a terrorist prisoner in order to find information of the whereabouts of bin Laden. Maya isn’t amused by the torture that is going on and doesn’t participate, but she is willing to accept any means necessary in order to unlock the truth and hunt down the man she’s obsessed with finding. Of all the prisoners they have interrogated there seems to be one man that is mentioned by everyone: Abu Ahmed.  Maya is convinced that this man is bin Laden’s personal courier and that if she can locate him then she will locate his leader. Her boss, Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler) isn’t convinced about this theory, but Maya is determined to pursue this lead. The entire film is a very detailed procedural drama of how Maya follows one lead after another (with several false and disappointing leads along the way) until she is able to locate the whereabouts of bin Laden. Her next mission is to convince the authorities that bin Laden is actually hidden in that complex without having definite proof, but her certainty ends up convincing the leaders to send the US Navy SEALS team led by Patrick (Joel Edgerton) to attack the compound and kill bin Laden.

There were a great amount of talented actors cast in this film such as James Gandolfini, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Duplass, Frank Grillo, and Chris Platt, but they had very few scenes and the entire film centered on Jessica Chastain. She deserves an Oscar for her performance here, and Mark Boal deserves one for Best Screenplay. The entire film is a character study on Maya as her entire life revolves around catching this man. We see it in her eyes from the very opening scene to the very end where instead of experiencing joy for the success she had, all we can see is a sigh of relief. What comes next for Maya? She doesn’t even know as she was so focused and determined on one thing only. I love Bigelow’s style and how she downsizes the entire war and centers everything on one central character. Just like she did in The Hurt Locker where the focus is on Renner’s character and how the adrenaline of war has become an addiction for him; now the focus is on Chastain who is very driven and obsessed with accomplishing her goal. There is not anything else on her mind; it’s as if she lives for one specific purpose. In the end you don’t know if you should cheer for her or feel sorry that her work is done. In a way I felt Bigelow’s approach to the events that led to bin Laden’s death to be very powerful; and it has raised a lot of discussions about torture, but that is exactly what a great film should do: bring up conversations and make us question things at times. After a decade long manhunt, was it really a triumph to kill bin Laden? Was it worth a celebration? Does the end justify the means? Without taking sides Bigelow makes us think about these issues and that is what good movies do for the viewers.    

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My Review: The Way Back (8/10)

¨Kindness. That will kill you here¨

 The Way Back is a fantastic movie directed by Peter Weir, who made one of my favorite films, The Dead Poets Society. I don’t think any of his movies will live up to that one, but The Way Back is still a great and inspiring movie. The film is based on the novel ¨The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom¨ written by Slavomir Rawicz who claims the book is autobiographical although many skeptics have found flaws in his claims. I don’t care if the events actually happened or not, I still think they made for a great and inspiring story. I`ve seen many films about survival and some are greatly exaggerated (The Grey for example), but this tale is as realistic as it gets. There are several long shots of beautiful scenery where nothing much happens other than long and exhausting walks. I guess that is what a survival film should have: endless walking. I even got tired of seeing these characters walk so much, but Peter Weir adapted the screenplay in such a way that he maintains us interested in the characters and their struggle for survival and their refusal to surrender under such harsh adversities. I also loved the performance from the cast, Jim Sturgess was strong as the lead role and he had a lot of help from the supporting cast including the always reliable Ed Harris (who gave one of the best performances of his career in another Peter Weir movie: The Truman Show), Colin Farrell who may have had a few misses but also has a lot of hits including this one thanks to his great Russian accent, and of course the young and talented Saoirse Ronan who we have seen in Atonement and Hannah. The Way Back is a solid movie with a lot of heart, beautiful scenery, and some strong performances.

The story is pretty simple, it takes place during the early 1940`s in communist URSS during the Second World War. Janusz (Jim Sturgess) is a Polish accused of being a spy by his own wife (after having tortured her) and therefore sent to a Siberian gulag where he meets other innocent and no so innocent prisoners. Some of these prisoners include the reserved American Mr. Smith (Ed Harris), a Russian criminal Valka (Colin Farrell), and Khabarov (Mark Strong) the man who introduces him to the place and befriends him. Janusz knows how to survive in the wild and begins to engineer a plan to escape and walk across Russia to Mongolia. Along with Mr. Smith, Valka, and a few more men they decide to escape in the middle of a snow storm and take their chances in the wild. With little food and fierce weather conditions they begin their struggle for survival in the open. During their journey to Mongolia they face several obstacles but continue to pursue south. On their way they meet a teenage girl who is also trying to flee the country. Irena (Saoirse Ronan) begs the men allow her to accompany them and although they refused at first they begin befriending her and enjoying her company. Together they continue their struggle for survival in search of freedom although many more obstacles are ahead of them.

I really enjoyed Colin Farrell`s performance in this movie. I think he brought the comic relief that was needed in this type of movie and was perfect. His scenes were probably the most interesting ones. Jim Sturgess has a great future ahead of him and he does give a strong performance in this difficult film. Ed Harris is one of the best actors so it was no surprise he was so good in this movie. Saoirse Ronan gives the movie the heart it lacked at the beginning. The movie has an excellent cast; they give great performances and make us care for their characters which are essential in a survival movie like this. Every time the movie seems to be slowing down something exciting or interesting happens that hooks us again. There is also a lot of different and beautiful scenery in the film and the cinematography is great. The film also reminds us of the oppressive regime that the soviets ran and the injustice many had to face. It makes a pretty harsh statement towards this political movement, but in the end it is actually a movie about survival and never giving up.

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My Review: John Carter (6/10)

¨Did I not tell you he could jump!¨

John Carter was one of the biggest box office disappointments of the last decade, and it`s too bad because it actually isn`t that terrible. I actually enjoyed most of it thanks to the spectacular visuals and the interesting science fiction story. I had the same reaction with John Carter as I did with Avatar, I didn’t find them to be great movies, but I didn’t hate them either. This film was directed by the creator of Finding Nemo and Wall-E, two hugely successful films, so I guess they can forgive Andrew Stanton for the loss. Stanton proves he can manage the artistic side of his films, but I think what John Carter lacked was a little more comedy to loosen the tension. Sometimes it`s good in these type of fictional films to lighten up the mood by not taking itself too seriously. That was the biggest error I found in John Carter, it took itself way too seriously when the premise actually is a little ridiculous. I did have a lot of fun however with the action scenes and the spectacular visuals. John Carter is actually based on the stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs over a century ago, ¨A Princess of Mars¨. These stories had a great impact and influenced other writers` imaginations for such works as Superman, Flash Gordon, and Avatar. John Carter should have been better distributed as most people had never heard of it before and probably thought it was just a copy of all these past science fiction films. It wasn`t a great film, but it deserved a lot more recognition than what it received.

The story takes place during the late 1860`s while America was facing a Civil War. Captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) had withdrawn from the war and was searching for gold in a hidden cave. When an Officer named Powell (Bryan Cranston) comes searching for him to join his cavalry, Carter flees once again only to be caught in the middle between Powell`s men and some Apache Indians. Carter ends up hiding in a cave and discovers the gold he had been looking for, but out of nowhere a mysterious man shows up with some sort of device that transports him to another planet. Carter finds himself in Mars (or as the natives call it Barsoom) with no idea as to where he is, but he discovers that he can jump extremely high and long distances. A group of natives known as the Jeddaks led by Tars Tarkas (Willem Defoe) find John Carter and take him prisoner. Mars is in the middle of a civil war as the people from Zodanga are trying to conquer the entire planet. The only resistance is put up by the people of Helium, but the leader of Zodanga, Sab Thon (Dominic West), has recently been given a powerful weapon that can easily destroy the city. The weapon came from Matai (Mark Strong), who seems to be from the same species as the person Carter found in the cave. Sab promises not to destroy Helium if Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) agrees to marry her, but Matai has other intentions with the planet. Dejah runs into Carter and realizes he can be their only hope for salvation.

The action scenes in this film are pretty interesting, but the movie suffers from not having some sort of comedic relief. At times the movie seems to move too slowly and it begins to drag, but the great visuals make up for it. Taylor Kitsch gives a believable performance, but we can’t help but feel something is missing in this new world (perhaps a better supporting character). I still think John Carter is much better than what the trailer makes you believe it is. Edgar Rice Burroughs was a great writer and he had some interesting ideas, the problem is that this movie isn’t a novelty as his stories were over a century ago. The sad thing is we now have seen and grown to love films that actually were inspired by John Carter. Burroughs also created the Tarzan stories and in a way John Carter resembles him in some aspects of the story. John Carter is worth a watch for what the story has meant and for the great visuals that Stanton has created, but there is not much more to it.

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My Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (10/10)

¨It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies? ¨

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy might just be my favorite movie of the year. Director Tomas Alfredson caught my attention a few years ago with his Swedish film Let the Right One in, which in my  opinion is the best vampire film I`ve seen. This is a very different movie, but he still uses very similar techniques. He shoots several shots from a distance which sort of sets the mood of the story dealing with espionage, the setting is also very dark and grayish, and the story moves at a pretty slow pace, but at the same time the mystery and thrills are always there. This is how a spy thriller should be made; it`s about as realistic as any spy film could ever be. I`m sorry for all those Mission Impossible, James Bond, and Jason Bourne fans, but this is a far more superior thriller. Perhaps the action isn’t as entertaining or as easy to follow, but if you stick with this movie and put your complete attention specifically on these characters the result is truly satisfying. This isn’t a popcorn movie you can watch while you’re doing something else; you have to devote time and attention to it. My greatest fear is that viewers are becoming so numbed by mindless action scenes and special effects that we don’t even want to think about a movie while we`re watching it. Sometimes we just want to feel entertained, but we`re not willing to spend time focusing on the story and what is going on. We want everything put in front of us and don`t want to try to discover things on our own. If that is the case then Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is not the movie for you, but if you are into a well crafted mystery thriller than you will be in for a pleasant surprise like I was. This was one of the greatest viewing experiences I`ve had this year.

The movie takes place during the Cold War and its set in 1973 London. One of the head members of the British Intelligence Service, named Control (John Hurt), sends one of his agents (Mark Strong) on a special mission to Budapest. Control tells Jim that he received important and confidential information about one of his four top spies being a mole, which would explain why the Russians have been up to date with what is going on in England. Control`s four head spies are Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), and Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), and he believes one of them is the mole. Control evens suspects his right hand man, George Smiley (Gary Oldman), so he orders Jim to go to Budapest and meet with his contact to find out who the traitor is. He has a code name for each one of the spies (tinker, tailor, soldier, and poorman). When Jim arrives at Budapest the mission goes wrong and it`s clear to Control that the traitor has found out and blown the mission once again. Control is forced to retire after the Budapest fiasco along with George Smiley. A year later Control passes away and one of the British ministers hires Smiley to discover who the mole is after he receives a phone call from a disappeared agent named Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy) who claims to have information about the traitor. Smiley begins investigating with the help of another agent named Benedict Cumberbatch (Peter Guillam) and begins piecing things together through a series of interesting and eye-opening flashbacks.

The story is just really well made, it`s really smart, there is a lot of talking going on, and not much action, but it forces you to pay attention to every small detail of the movie. Once the movie is over, you feel like watching it all over again because you feel like you had missed some important details. I really loved this film and was completely satisfied with the movie. The performances are just great, Gary Oldman steals the show. He is so quiet and emotionless; what a really good spy probably looks like. You never know what is going through his mind, but you cant help but think he knows what he`s doing. Then there is Tom Hardy who is always great. He is probably the person who shows more emotion in this movie, but he is brilliant. Peter Guillam, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, and John Hurt are all terrific as well. The movie really has a seventies feel to it and I don’t think you can get closer to that time better than how Alfredson did. The casting, the setting, the filming, the editing, the soundtrack, everything about this film is just perfect. This film, along with Drive, were the best experiences I had with a movie this year. It isn`t a sexy or entertaining film, it will require your complete attention, but the payoff is completely worth it. The screenplay was also really well adapted from the John Le Carre lengthy novel. They were able to condense the story into two hours which is much shorter than the seven hour BBC television version starring Alec Guinness. I really loved this film and absolutely recommend it over any other spy thriller.

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My Review: The Eagle (4/10)

¨How can a piece of metal mean so much to you? -The eagle is not a piece of metal. The eagle is Rome.¨

The Eagle is based on a historical novel written by Rosemary Sutcliff called The Eagle of the Ninth (1954). It`s a fiction adventure novel, but it is based on some true facts (The Ninth Legion really did disappear around the 2<sup>nd</sup> Century and the Wall of Hadrian was built to protect the Romans from the Scottish tribes). Director Kevin Macdonald brings this novel to the big screen, and in my opinion it is one of his weakest films to date. I really enjoyed his previous two films: State of Play and The Last King of Scotland, but this one really disappointed me with its slow pace and lack of a good leading performance. One of the main issues in my opinion is that in his previous movies Macdonald got the casting right, but in The Eagle he was lacking that charismatic lead performance that say Forrest Whitaker gave in The Last King of Scotland. Jeremy Brock, who also worked with Macdonald in the past, adapted the screenplay for The Eagle and since I never read The Eagle of the Ninth I can`t say how faithful this film is to the novel. My main critique of The Eagle relies on the fact that I never really connected with the movie; the pace was really slow and I was waiting for the film to pick up at some point, but it never really did until the very end and by that time I wanted the movie to be over. I kept on dozing off while watching this film and was hugely disappointed with the pace. I wanted the film to end right after I had seen the first 15 minutes.

The story takes place around 140 AD when Britain was being ruled by the Roman Empire. It`s been twenty years since the Ninth Legion has disappeared in the Scottish highlands and lost the Golden Eagle, which was an emblem of honor for Rome. The loss of the emblem has been a disgrace for the Roman Empire. As a result of the defeat they had to build the Hadrian Wall in order to keep the barbarian tribes away. Now a young centurion named Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) has been sent to one of the lasts forts in Britain. He happens to be the son of the defeated Commander of the Ninth Legion, and dreams of someday restoring his father`s name. In order to do so, he will need to head north past the walls and into the uncharted highlands. The Romans are scared of passing the walls because they know these savages are dangerous. After experiencing an injury in battle and retreating to his uncle´s villa, Marcus is convinced he has to try to bring the Eagle back to the Romans. His Uncle Aquila (Donald Sutherland) tries to convince him not to, but Marcus is decided to take the risk. His only companion is a Briton slave who he has just saved named Esca (Jamie Bell). Esca despises the Romans, but he owes his life to Marcus and is forever indebted to him as his slave. Esca is Marcus`s only hope because he knows the world outside of the walls and can communicate with some of the tribes. Together they set out on an impossible mission to retrieve the golden Eagle and restore his father`s honor.

The story is actually pretty interesting, but I actually failed to connect with the characters in the movie. The pace is really slow and the performance from the cast was just average. I don’t think this was the right role for Tatum; at least I didn’t see him as a Roman centurion. The savages were also a bit over characterized. Mark Strong plays a villain once again and he is pretty convincing as Guern, one of the leaders of a savage tribe. The scenery is really beautiful, but as I said before I kept on dozing off due to the pace and lack of action. The chemistry between the two lead characters was ok, but I felt there could have been more done with their relationship. These two guys come from totally different backgrounds, they have opposing views of the world, but somehow they manage to get over their differences and we see how these two men who should be enemies end up becoming friends. Jamie Bell was pretty convincing in his portrayal of the Briton slave. He`s come a long way from his Billy Elliot days. There is not much more I can say about this movie, it just drags for long periods of times. The action scenes are well choreographed, but they are too few and far spread apart. It is more of a road trip between two different individuals who come together along the journey. The problem is that it`s a journey I wouldn’t want to be taking again.

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