Kingdom of Heaven

Ridley Scott joins the few and the proud of those who have made films about the crusades. In fact, I can't actually even think of another film about the crusades. For some reason I have little desire to write about it, so I probably won't. Suffice it to say it's a good movie, but not great and certainly not profound. Don't take it's idea of religion very seriously, because it's tackled with a typical Hollywood superficiality and then boiled into some mildly truth version of political correctness. Orlando Bloom turns in a strong, if slightly stoic, performance in his first leading role, and I respected his character. Its traditional, though always welcome period cast includes: Jeremy Irons (under-used), David Thewlis (under-used), Brendan Gleeson (who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Ghost of Christmas Present in The Muppet Christmas Carol), Eva Green (displaying that same exotic beauty she had in The Dreamers when she had her clothes on), Edward Norton (who wore a mask the entire time and kept making me think that it would be an ideal role for Marlon Brando) and Liam Neeson rounding out his roles as an important father who dies off early as in Gangs of New York.