Max-von-Sydow Movie Reviews

This movie wasn't bad, but it was by no means great. I found it quite difficult to follow the storyline, and the special effects were less than convincing (is it just me, or did they use the exact same shot of the Russian submarine, like, 5 times?) Some of the acting, Sheen and Hauer included, seemed forced.
The first 45 minutes of the movie were nearly unbearable, but towards the end, the pace picked up and it became more interesting. I even enjoyed the ending.

(Note: If you are buying this movie for the performance of Dominic Monaghan [as I admit I did], don't waste your money on it. He is hardly shown and has ONE line. Just a heads-up)

Little more than a serviceable introduction to the historical proceedings. Wooden acting all round. In fact, Sheen looks like he's sleepwalking (or punchdrunk) through the thing. Still, Hauer does manage to conjure some sympathy as the Russian captain who does his best to save all his men, though, regardless of what he does, he can't win back home with the Soviet officials. Otherwise, there are handful of interesting insights into submarine culture--if what we're seeing is an accurate portrayal.

Overall, Hostile Waters the feel of a mediocre (to bad) TV movie (which I'm assuming it isn't), including some particularly unconvincing special effects--to the extent that, though this was made in 1997, I would've guessed '87. It just looks that dated. Only Hauer and Sheen's haggard appearances are any clue that it was made later.

Having read the book first I really looked forward to the movie as a chance to dispel some of the strange ideas we have about Soviet sailors and to shed a little light on a very shadowy place in the worlds militaries.This chance was missed however by skimming over the cause of the events and failing to show the almost superhuman efforts the Rissian captain and crew went through to save the situation. Rutger Hauers performance as a consumate submariner and commanding officer are as close to reality as this movie comes. Surely a missed chance.

This movie wasn't bad, but it was by no means great. I found it quite difficult to follow the storyline, and the special effects were less than convincing (is it just me, or did they use the exact same shot of the Russian submarine, like, 5 times?) Some of the acting, Sheen and Hauer included, seemed forced.
The first 45 minutes of the movie were nearly unbearable, but towards the end, the pace picked up and it became more interesting. I even enjoyed the ending.

(Note: If you are buying this movie for the performance of Dominic Monaghan [as I admit I did], don't waste your money on it. He is hardly shown and has ONE line. Just a heads-up)

Little more than a serviceable introduction to the historical proceedings. Wooden acting all round. In fact, Sheen looks like he's sleepwalking (or punchdrunk) through the thing. Still, Hauer does manage to conjure some sympathy as the Russian captain who does his best to save all his men, though, regardless of what he does, he can't win back home with the Soviet officials. Otherwise, there are handful of interesting insights into submarine culture--if what we're seeing is an accurate portrayal.

Overall, Hostile Waters the feel of a mediocre (to bad) TV movie (which I'm assuming it isn't), including some particularly unconvincing special effects--to the extent that, though this was made in 1997, I would've guessed '87. It just looks that dated. Only Hauer and Sheen's haggard appearances are any clue that it was made later.

Having read the book first I really looked forward to the movie as a chance to dispel some of the strange ideas we have about Soviet sailors and to shed a little light on a very shadowy place in the worlds militaries.This chance was missed however by skimming over the cause of the events and failing to show the almost superhuman efforts the Rissian captain and crew went through to save the situation. Rutger Hauers performance as a consumate submariner and commanding officer are as close to reality as this movie comes. Surely a missed chance.

I bought this movie on the assumption that its starring Christopher Lambert and Max Von Sydow and its props ("The most exciting historical drama since Braveheart!") would guarantee a good solid two hours of fine entertainment. Just goes to show how wrong a person can be.

Admittedly, I didn't watch the entire film...I got absolutely disgusted with it during the fight scene between Lambert and some woman, maybe twenty minutes into the film, and threw the thing into the garbage...but what I saw wasn't promising. EXTREMELY bad acting, worse than the worst acting I've ever seen, dialog so hokey and stilted it doesn't even sound like they phoned it in but rather sent it via Morse code, cut scenes that have absolutely no bearing on anything that's going on in the film, bad filmography (looks like it was shot entirely in Super 8 by an amatuer filmmaker on a thousand dollar budget), no pacing, characters you couldn't care less about, EXTREMELY bad editting...the list goes on. In fact, it looks as though they wasted their entire budget on the first 30 seconds, filming an outer space shot of a comet passing by the Earth, and had no money left to do a decent job on the rest of the film.

If you want to waste fifteen bucks like I did buying this film, go ahead, just know that you'd get more pleasure out of running your money through a paper shredder and burning it.

I don't know how you could make a worse film. Ok starts out with characters that we could care less about, the boy we can already tell is the "hero".

The story moves you into his older years, where he trains with this chick. What? What is his name first of all, who is teaching him, what is their relationship, and who is this chick? I am so confused, and could care less. The only fight scene that is fine is between him and the chick, but it is still boring. Ok so we meet up with ceaser, however they don't even tell you it is ceaser, and ceaser even helps vertengenerix out. Let me tell you something though, I learned the guy's name at the END of the movie, when the aftermath was talking.

Ok as for characters, there are no emotions, no good acting, and no feelings whatsoever. I could care less about every character.

Battles? One, the beggining between chick and him. The big battle? AWESOME! Joking, the camera shows them run up, then it starts showing dead bodies. We see, mabye 2 guys get killed. Let's see some battles please, there are no battles. Basically they show dead bodies. There was one battle earlier, but nudity was the only thing that could save film, even then, it served no purpose.

Wanna know what I think? This did not go to theatres because it blows. Also, noone on the box says, "Spectacular, raves the new york times or wahtever." It doesn't say anything like that, because they couldn't find one person to say something decent about it.

Christopher Lambert plays Vercingetorix, a Gallic chieftain whose initial alliance with the Romans ends after the Romans cowardly attack an old family friend and assassinate him.

What follows is a beautifully filmed epic detailing the battles of Vercingetorix as he fights to liberate Gaul from the Romans.

Despite some historical inaccuracies, there was a lot to love about this film. The beautiful costumes, scenery and epic battles show a great attention to detail and a love of the Celtic world and tradition.

If I had any criticism at all for this movie, it would be that I felt a certain lack of empathy for Vercingetorix as a character. Lambert's acting was too stiff and the subject matter too broad to actually connect with this character. Perhaps a more dynamic actor could've brought this character more to life.

Overall, though, an outstanding movie, worth seeing for the cinematography and costumes alone.

I bought this movie on the assumption that its starring Christopher Lambert and Max Von Sydow and its props ("The most exciting historical drama since Braveheart!") would guarantee a good solid two hours of fine entertainment. Just goes to show how wrong a person can be.

Admittedly, I didn't watch the entire film...I got absolutely disgusted with it during the fight scene between Lambert and some woman, maybe twenty minutes into the film, and threw the thing into the garbage...but what I saw wasn't promising. EXTREMELY bad acting, worse than the worst acting I've ever seen, dialog so hokey and stilted it doesn't even sound like they phoned it in but rather sent it via Morse code, cut scenes that have absolutely no bearing on anything that's going on in the film, bad filmography (looks like it was shot entirely in Super 8 by an amatuer filmmaker on a thousand dollar budget), no pacing, characters you couldn't care less about, EXTREMELY bad editting...the list goes on. In fact, it looks as though they wasted their entire budget on the first 30 seconds, filming an outer space shot of a comet passing by the Earth, and had no money left to do a decent job on the rest of the film.

If you want to waste fifteen bucks like I did buying this film, go ahead, just know that you'd get more pleasure out of running your money through a paper shredder and burning it.

I don't know how you could make a worse film. Ok starts out with characters that we could care less about, the boy we can already tell is the "hero".

The story moves you into his older years, where he trains with this chick. What? What is his name first of all, who is teaching him, what is their relationship, and who is this chick? I am so confused, and could care less. The only fight scene that is fine is between him and the chick, but it is still boring. Ok so we meet up with ceaser, however they don't even tell you it is ceaser, and ceaser even helps vertengenerix out. Let me tell you something though, I learned the guy's name at the END of the movie, when the aftermath was talking.

Ok as for characters, there are no emotions, no good acting, and no feelings whatsoever. I could care less about every character.

Battles? One, the beggining between chick and him. The big battle? AWESOME! Joking, the camera shows them run up, then it starts showing dead bodies. We see, mabye 2 guys get killed. Let's see some battles please, there are no battles. Basically they show dead bodies. There was one battle earlier, but nudity was the only thing that could save film, even then, it served no purpose.

Wanna know what I think? This did not go to theatres because it blows. Also, noone on the box says, "Spectacular, raves the new york times or wahtever." It doesn't say anything like that, because they couldn't find one person to say something decent about it.

Christopher Lambert plays Vercingetorix, a Gallic chieftain whose initial alliance with the Romans ends after the Romans cowardly attack an old family friend and assassinate him.

What follows is a beautifully filmed epic detailing the battles of Vercingetorix as he fights to liberate Gaul from the Romans.

Despite some historical inaccuracies, there was a lot to love about this film. The beautiful costumes, scenery and epic battles show a great attention to detail and a love of the Celtic world and tradition.

If I had any criticism at all for this movie, it would be that I felt a certain lack of empathy for Vercingetorix as a character. Lambert's acting was too stiff and the subject matter too broad to actually connect with this character. Perhaps a more dynamic actor could've brought this character more to life.

Overall, though, an outstanding movie, worth seeing for the cinematography and costumes alone.