As the Roman Empire crumbles, undemanding escapist entertainment with wonderful production design and a cast.
The Last Legion (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 52
Fresh: 9
Rotten:43
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Consensus: With miscast leads and unoriginal, uninspired dialogue, The Last Legion pales in comparison to the recent cinematic epics it invokes.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release: Aug 17, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $125,769,808
Synopsis: THE LAST LEGION is a reason to rejoice for action fans who prefer their battle scenes to be composed of flesh and blood rather than megabytes. Based on the novel by Valerio Manfredi, this is a sword-and-sandal epic that deftly weaves a tale of... THE LAST LEGION is a reason to rejoice for action fans who prefer their battle scenes to be composed of flesh and blood rather than megabytes. Based on the novel by Valerio Manfredi, this is a sword-and-sandal epic that deftly weaves a tale of the fall of the Roman Empire with myth and magic, giving us plenty of swordplay and liberal doses of knowingly corny humor. In Rome of 476 A.D., 12-year-old Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster) is to be crowned emperor at the same time that barbarian king Odoacer (Peter Mullan) arrives with his fierce warriors--led by brutish Wulfila (Kevin McKidd)--to slaughter everyone in sight. With his family dead, young Romulus is captured and taken, along with his teacher--the wise mystic Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley)--to the island of Capri. Learning that the Byzantine Empire has offered a safe haven for Romulus, surviving Roman soldier Aurelius (Colin Firth) teams up with fierce female warrior Mira (Aishwarya Rai) and sets out to retrieve the boy. Deceit on the part of the Byzantines, however, necessitates that Aurelius change direction for Britannia, home of the last safe outpost for Romans. In an era where every thrill-ride film strives to be louder, bloodier, and more boundary-stretching than the next, THE LAST LEGION shows a charming, family-friendly restraint. The cast, led by two veteran English actors (Kingsley and Firth, the good guys), two fine Scottish actors (Mullan and McKidd, the baddies), and a Bollywood superstar (Rai, grand in her action sequence), is clearly having a blast. With rousing, elaborate (and bloodless) battle scenes, liberal humor, and a neat twist at its conclusion, this is old-fashioned B-movie making in the best sense of the word. [More]
Starring: Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Peter Mullan
Starring: Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd, John Hannah, Thomas Sangster, Iain Glen, Rupert Friend
Director: Doug Lefler
Director: Doug Lefler
Screenwriter: Jez Butterworth, Tom Butterworth
Story: Carlo Carlei, Peter Rader, Valerio Manfredi
Producer: Martha De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, Tarak Ben Ammar
Composer: Patrick Doyle
Studio: Weinstein Company
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Reviews for The Last Legion
There are, after all, aimed at young audiences plenty of movies more mean-spirited, indiscriminate and obnoxious than The Last Legion. But at the same time there are plenty that are, alas, less frustrating.
Colin Firth is not an actor who projects sparkling joie de vivre at the best of times, and The Last Legion, a cod-Roman reimagining of Arthurian myth, is very much not the best of times.
A hunk of old Brie, left all day in the glove compartment in a car on a hot summer's day, could not smell more ripe than this absurd sword'n'sandal Roman movie.
A novel hybrid of swords, sandals, horned helmets and furs, this really is a load of old rubbish, but there's some fun to be had, especially for boys who like to have mock sword fights with wooden sticks.
Paper-thin characters, stilted conversations and abrupt editing mean this is hard to get involved with, and its link with Arthurian legend feels contrived and clichéd.
Crudely mangling Arthurian legend into Roman history, this creaky swords ’n’ sandals romper trundles forward like a hurriedly upholstered TV movie.
The action sequences are handled well enough but the CGI isn't up to snuff in a tale that barely merits the retelling.
This attempt at reimagining the Arthurian legend fails to raise the pulse due to some leaden dialogue and unconvincing performances.
...makes a hash of history, but...just think of it as a nifty adventure dreamed by an imaginative boy who dozed off in his grandfather's library.
Here's a strange concept: A goofy, Indiana-Jones-type spin on the pre-Arthur legend.
While it's almost certainly guaranteed to be a box office bomb, I'm suspecting this goofy little adventure will earn a few bemused fans once it hits DVD.
A passably entertaining hodgepodge of sword-and-sandal film clichés and Arthurian romance.
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August 02, 2007:
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