Monday, 5 July 2010

Prince of Persia

Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton. Dir. Mike Newell.

I used to play the game on a Mac II back in the 90s. It was fun. Lots of swishing swords and the like. Mike Newell is normally great, Jake Gyllenhaal is usually fine, Ben Kingsley is generally worth the money, presuming he's not doing his cookie-cutter villain routine, and Gemma Arterton is a bright young hope too. Lots of excellent-looking supporting cast too.

And here's the thing. Jerry Bruckheimer. Okay, so he did the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which was great fun. The second and third were unavoidable, and reasonably entertaining. Black Hawk Down is fantastic. Veronica Guerin was excellent, and also important. But the following black marks all count against him in the last decade - Pearl Harbor (oh dear), Kangaroo Jack (oh dear oh dear), National Treasure (yawn). He also keeps Michael Bay in work, which counts double against him.

So, bearing in mind Bruckheimer's involvement, it'll be a well put together movie with decent performances and a lingering sense of, well, vacancy. Unless they get lucky and someone pulls off a Captain Jack Sparrow performance. Don't see one in the trailer though.

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