Archive for the ‘epic’ Category

The boy who would be Khan

Writer-director Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol (2007) fell victim somewhat to a less-than-helpful advertising campaign at the time of its release, depicting the film as being largely about Genghis Khan’s military conquests, but Bodrov’s work (and an epic, impressive piece of work it is) in reality takes us through the life of legendary Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan from the age of nine until the battle that would cement his position in history, showing not so much how the man rose to power, but rather (and rather more interestingly) how he in fact gained the strength to become a world-beater.

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Nothing wizard here

Always a worrying sign, when a studio places an embargo on critics at the world’s first screening of a film, as happened with Australia (2008) – the inevitable question is: ‘So, does 20th Century Fox know something really bad that we don’t?’

Unfortunately, it would appear that the answer is pretty much in the affirmative. Baz Luhrmann is a director who has split audiences and critics alike down the years – the pro-votes tend to veer towards his sublime Romeo and Juliet (1996) (well, I say sublime but Colin, of course, hated it) and, of course, the brilliant Strictly Ballroom (1992), which differs from the recent BBC craze Strictly Come Dancing in that it isn’t fucking awful, while the naysayers tend to gang up on Moulin Rouge (2001) – its star, Nicole Kidman, was Oscar nominated, but it’s nevertheless an overblown and somewhat insincere musical maelstrom.

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