Cuparia

I would be remiss if I did not admit that my sole motivation in watching Princess of Thieves (2001) was to see Keira Knightley. I did not expect to see a masterpiece. Let’s be honest, she is usually the only redeeming feature of most of the movies she has been in, and often that isn’t enough to redeem the movie itself. This was no exception. When we noticed that Malcolm McDowell was in the cast (playing the Sheriff of Nottingham), my brother remarked that usually McDowell’s name in the credits has alone been the deciding factor in dissuading him from renting many a movie. Given McDowell’s record, I had to concede Danny Boy had a point. “What have we seen that McDowell was good in?” I asked, trying to recall. A Clockwork Orange — that’s about it. Danny Boy also liked him in Cat People. Looking at IMDb.com, I notice he was also in some early episodes of Lexx, but I still haven’t seen the first season, so I can’t comment on that.

Back to the topic (Princess of Thieves), this British television movie employed many of the wearisome clichés found in adventure movies, combined with some cartoonishly exaggerated performances (the worst offender being McDowell) [Edit: On second thought, the worst offender by far was Jonathan Hyde, who played Prince John in a performance reminiscent of Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons], and some unconvincing combat scenes. It seems as if this movie was made primarily to showcase Knightley’s charms. Charms she may have (I did mention that she was the only reason I watched it), but they are not enough to salvage this movie. [Edit: However, she is in the movie a lot, and at least it isn't Pirates of the Caribbean. This movie may not be good, but it's worth watching if you like Knightley.]

• Writing: Poor
• Directing: Mediocre
• Acting: Mediocre
• Cinematography: Fair
• Fight Choreography: Mediocre
• [Edit: Keira Knightley's Charms: Great]

Overall Rating: Mediocre
Swashbuckling Rank: Poor

Tags: swashbuckling

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 14th, 2006 at 9:27 am and is filed under Films. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.