First rule when you try to do a realistic, historical movie is that you indeed keep things realistic and stick to the truth. I'm not necessarily saying the movie is spreading lies, after all, I'm not an expert on the Cristeros war and won't pretend to be but the movie does feel too much like an one sided story, in which everything gets depicted in a very black & white style. The good guys are all extremely good and kind and the bad guys all extremely evil. It forces things onto the viewer, in indeed a too forced and ham-handed way. This definitely goes at the expense of the overall realism and credibility of the movie.

The way it forces some of its story on to you doesn't only make its story hard to get into but also the storytelling itself ensures this. It for instance throws in too many needless plot lines, in which, for instance, it shows the courage and sacrifices women had to make. In others it does the same for children. Stuff like this only distracts from its main plot line and due to the way it gets forced into the movie, it's also incredibly ineffective.

That's probably the biggest problem of the movie; it doesn't ever become a very engaging film experience. I just can't imaging anyone feeling involved with any of the events or characters, while watching this movie. There's nothing that you'll ever make you cheer or cry, unless you are easily taken by false and forced emotions.

But the reason why most of the stuff feels forced and ineffective is not just because of its story and storytelling but also really due to its overall directing style. Perhaps no big surprise, seeing how this movie was Dean Wright's directorial debut. It never feels focused enough and there is never really a pleasant enough flow to the overall movie. it never allows its characters or true drama to develop, since it feels more concerned about being a fast paced movie, that never slows down for anything. This also of course becomes apparent with its editing, that completely destroys some of the scenes and emotions for this movie.

It's not like I totally hated watching this movie but I can see why it has such a bad reputation and why there is also even some hate toward it. It simplifies everything, up to a point that the movie ultimately even becomes quite ridicules at parts, especially toward the end, when its religious themes start to kick in even more.

But really, the most annoying and bad aspect about this movie remains how incredibly black & white it's being with its story. This would had been fine for, lets say, a more entertainment oriented production but this movie is pretending to be way more than that. But then why villainize the government in such a ridicules and forced way? The soldiers don't just randomly execute and kill men, rape women and torture children but they also smile while doing so.

I'm still not sure if I should blame Andy Garcia for anything. I'm sure of it that Enrique Gorostieta is some sort of well known and respected historical figure, in Mexican history but I just never got the sense of that while watching this movie. It's such an incredibly bland character, that Garcia is playing. You never really get behind his motivations and reasoning, or see why he got picked to be the leader of the Cristeros. It's hard to say if any of this could be blamed on Garcia's actual acting but fact remains that Andy Garcia comes across bad in this. Maybe he was just miscast and some other, more charismatic, actor would had done a better but somehow I doubt this.

Oh and great job recycling some of your old music again James Horner!

Still, I honestly didn't dislike this movie bad enough to hate it as well. Yes, it does basically everything wrong but still it is never quite bad enough to consider this movie a completely unwatchable one. Still can't think off any good reasons why you should watch this movie but at the same time, there are far worse movies you could watch. The movie does still has its moments and thing I can also say about it, is that it never really bores.

5/10

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(Review originally written at 6 April 2008)

To be honest, I didn't expect this movie to be as good as it turned out to be. No way this movie seemed like one deserving its current 8 out of 10 rating on here. This seemed to me like just another fluffy 'light'-Lord of the Rings children movie. But even though this movie borrows heavily from other movies, it remains a good and certainly fun quality production.

Best choice the movie made, was that it was one that didn't took itself as seriously. You obviously have to take this movie with a grain of salt. It knows it is ridicules in parts and it doesn't try to hide this but rather even exploit it further. This is mostly what makes the movie so fun to watch. Because of this you also tend to forgive this movie from 'borrowing' elements or entire sequences from other movies. Fact that his movie doesn't take itself as serious can also be seen in the delicious over-the-top roles from Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer roles.

Because the movie needs to be taken with a grain of salt, also the humor works out the best. The humor within this movie feels non-forced, even though it got put in- and planned out all deliberately into the movie. It knows to remain fresh and it doesn't overly try to make you laugh. It's often more subtle and not something you would expect from a genre movie such as this.

It's mostly the fun level and atmosphere of this movie that makes it such a good one to watch. Because lets be fair, if this movie purely had to rely on its story, this would had been a rather weak and simple movie to watch. It's quite formulaic stuff all and of course the way the story progresses is rather predictable. I also don't know if this is really a kids movie. Even though the movie got obviously targeted towards this audience, I strongly feel that it are the adults who will mostly enjoy watching this. The humor and overall story is too mature for that.

Also the diverse wide range of characters makes this movie a real fun one to watch. Most characters are really over-the-top and are often being played by some fine big name actors. Besides the earlier mentioned Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, the movie also features Sienna Miller, Ian McKellen, Peter O'Toole, Mark Strong, Rupert Everett, Claire Danes, Nathaniel Parker, Dexter Fletcher and Ricky Gervais among others. Most of them are well known respected British actors, which also already gives the movie a certain atmosphere. But it needs to be said, with all the many different characters in the movie it at times feels that most actors looked as if they were making a movie on their own. The movie doesn't always feel like a coherent one.

Also the pacing isn't always right and the movie gave the feeling that it also could had been easily 15 minutes shorter. It on the other hand is a fine looking and constructed movie, even though it doesn't feature the best special effects around but this sort of feels suiting for the movie and its entire atmosphere.

Highly recommendable and in this case believe the hype!

8/10

(Review originally written at 28 September 2007)

The concept of a movie within a movie is greatly and fun executed in this movie and it blends perfectly in with the plot of the movie. The movie is filled with some great and impressive stunts. This is really a stunt men movie! I feel that this movie is a great homage to all the stunt people out there. There isn't too much to the rest of the story but that's sort of OK. It's the sort of story that put its emphasize on the slow development of the plot and character. It isn't until halfway through the movie that the story takes to take form and becomes more personal and layered. It even in part manages to become effective and powerful. The screenplay even received an Oscar nomination.

Above all the movie is still a comedy. It's a movie with a realistic directing approach. It's not the sort of movie with forced comedy moments in it but more a movie with a constantly present fun and light atmosphere, with also some great subtle fun dialog in it and other subtle comedy elements.

It's an '80's movie but yet the movie still totally feels and look like a '70's movie and that is of course a big plus. This is of course due to the fact that this movie actually shot in 1978 but not released until 1980 by Fox.

The movie features some great camera-work and some good fast editing, that keeps the movie flowing and the pace high. Also the nice musical score by Dominic Frontiere suits the movie well and makes it fun in parts and perfectly serious in others. It's a good balance between the comedy and drama, as is the entire movie as a whole.

Peter O'Toole is totally great and convincing in this movie as a director. He's such a wonderful actor! He also received an Oscar nominations for his role in this movie. Also the other actors in this movie are just fine, which is also thanks to the good directing approach of the movie. No big surprises to me that director Richard Rush was also nominated for an Oscar for this movie. He's a great actor director.

A great and fun movie to watch!

8/10

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