King Arthur (2004)

I have seen other films where many good actors, great cinematography, squillion-dollar budgets, and some good ideas were put at the service of lead-footed direction, silly plotting, and numbing dialogue, but you still never get used to it. King Arthur has an epic set-up an development, but actually takes the structure of a zippy chase film, and inflates it to 2-hours plus, selling itself through historical authenticity and research, but cashing it all in for a relentlessly moronic chase, slash and shout, ending in one of this dullest grand slaughters I've ever seen. Our heroes are indeed immortal. They swan about in the midst of snow-storms without shivering, and sleep all night in them without freezing solid. Clive Owen is reduced to glowering earnestly; Ioan Gruffudd's Hornblower dash lurks behind that pre-hairbrush mane but his wit is all washed out. Keira Knightley has fun as a savage warrior Guinevere, whose wild leather gear and Anime pluck stumble in from a different movie; Stellan Skarsgard appears to have played his part drunk, which is understandable. I'd like to entirely blame Jerry Bruckheimer, but it's also official that Antoine Fuqua is a shit director. Ray Winstone does yeoman service, however, as always