Kingdom Of Heaven (2005)

2.5 out of 4

Starring: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Eva Green, Martin Csokas, Edward Norton, Ghassan Massoud, Brendan Gleason, Alexander Siddig

Director: Ridley Scott

Time: 145 mins

Viewed: in home theatre

Historical epic, mixing facts and cinematic licence, detailing the exploits of Balian of Ibelin (played by period movie specialist Bloom), a 12th century blacksmith who journeys to Jerusalem during the Crusades to atone for his sins. While there, he runs afoul of Guy de Lusignan (Csokas), falls in love with Guy's wife, Princess Sibylla (Green), and has to fend off the hordes of Saracen leader Saladin (Massoud). Advertised as action-packed, film is anything but, the final siege of Jerusalem aside (a truly spectacular setpiece, with catapults and trebuchets raining fireballs on the walls and inside the city). Lacklustre (Balian) and unconvincing (Sibylla) characters don't help, though Neeson, Irons, Gleason, Massoud, and a masked Norton lend some class. Not boring, but given its length and sporadic action, also not hard to see why it failed when it opened the North American summer movie season.

(c) Joe Wong (14 November 2005)