A far, far cry from “Lawrence of Arabia,” but it has its diversions.
40
EmpireAngie Errigo
EmpireAngie Errigo
Ambitious but very tedious and talkatively hackneyed, redeemed just a smidge by the money shots of a swarm of extras on horseback sweeping across the sands.
There's undoubtedly a good film to be made out of the scramble for oil in the Arabian desert in the 1920s – but this, for all its herculean efforts, is not it.
40
Total Film
Total Film
Banderas hams and Pinto flutters. If it weren’t for Strong and some colourful art direction, you could chalk this up as a busted well.
Helmer/co-scripter Jean-Jacques Annaud's rep for spectacle over screenplay is again borne out in this overblown yet oddly anemic epic of warring Arabian tribes during the nascent oil boom.
0
Slant MagazineDiego Semerene
Slant MagazineDiego Semerene
There's an enormous amount of perverse pleasure to be had here for those who get off on the annihilation of nuance.