I thought it was a fantastic look at life on the seas. **** out *****. Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany were both top notch and they were surrounded by a terrific supporting cast.

I was very impressed w/ this piece of cinema and highly recommend it. It didn't seem too long, nor too short, and it had just the right touch of action and drama mixed together. :up:

I just watched this movie today. It's a great movie - one of the best so far this year IMO. It never seemed to drag at all and the time just flew by! Great movie.

Apparently, they are used so studios can track movies that are filmed with camcorders and traded illegally on the Internet back to the source. I read a thread a few weeks ago from a poster who was pretty mad about noticing them in a movie he was watching. I thought he was kind of making a big deal about them until I noticed them in this movie. When I saw them on the screen, in a scean that was supossed to be pretty dramatic, it immediately ruined it for me and I began to think about the whole "piracy" issue and it took me out of the movie.

I'm not a big supporter of digital piracy, but this is a pretty lame attempt to stop it. It interfered with my moviegoing experience and ruined the scene for me. I don't care if the studios try to crack down on piracy; I just don't want it to be forced into my movies.

As a starting point I'd like to mention that I have not read the O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels upon which this film is based. I would also like to mention that Master and Commander was one of my most anticipated films of the Fall/Winter season (if not the year). I went it to this film expecting a star-powered, jazzed-up special effects version of A&E's Hornblower series of films and it delivered on that front. If I had gone in expecting a summer-blockbuster action-type of film (kind of like the movie trailer might have led you to expect), I would have been greatly dissappointed. Also, this film is not Russel Crowe's version of Gladiator on the high-seas; I wouldn't quite consider M&C - unlike Gladiator - to be an epic tale either. It is a deliberately-paced tale of life aboard a British ship of war that happens to be bookended by battle scenes. It is not really a quick chase movie, rather the chase is simply a backdrop against which the rest of the story unfolds.

I thought Crowe was very good as Aubrey, plus I think he displayed a nice touch with the light-hearted/comic moments. Bettany - who I liked a great deal in A Knight's Tale and A Beautiful Mind - was fine as Dr. Maturin but I didn't find his scenes or storyline to be particularly interesting as compared to the shorter time we got to spend with other crew members (who I thought were excellent and whose stories I found more compelling); I felt the Bettany scenes dragged more than propelled the story. I had some high expectations in seeing Crowe and Bettany work together again but there scenes in this film lacked some of the magic I thought they showed in A Beautiful Mind. I was a little disappointed in that aspect of the film though again I might have had unwarranted high expectations.

While I understand that humor is very subjective, I must mention in this review that this film had one of the funniest jokes I've heard in a long time in a movie; I nearly bust a gut when it was delivered. Thankfully for the people in front of me I wasn't drinking a soda or anything at the time.

Even though the film is set on the high seas, it is more an intimate/claustrophobic/slice-of-life tale rather than a rousing boys' adventure tale of life sailing the open seas. I recall Geoffrey Kleinman mentioning in another thread that it has a Das Boot feel to it and that is correct; I am not too big a fan of up-close camera work but it was used effectively in this film to give you a real sense of being their on-deck or below with the crew. However, I do feel the close-in camera work was more a detriment than asset as it was used in the final battle scene. I would like to have seen the camera pulled back a little (and fewer quick cuts) so I had a better take on the sword-fighting. The film did a nice job of capturing a sense of time and place as you really could feel that you were there. For what it is worth I thought the final battle was better than the initial battle and that the film came to a strong conclusion. The storm was visually impressive with outstanding audio effects though the scene itself ran a little shorter than I had hoped for.

I can certainly understand that a significant numbers of viewers might receive this film in the same manner as the original thread starter (long, slow, boring). I've actually told a couple of people I know to skip it as it was not the type of film that they would enjoy. I'm a big fan of these type of historical war dramas so I was pleased as the film delivered (unlike last year's The Four Feathers). However, I had a fair idea of what to expect going in. Personally, while I did enjoy it, I wouldn't rank it with the Mutiny on the Bounty films or something like Gregory Peck's Captain Horatio Hornblower (or the Errol Flynn swashbucklers if you want to go that far, note though that the films just mentioned are some of my all-time favorites). Master & Commander is in some way to sea-faring adventure films what Once Upon a Time in the West is to Western films (note: I am not saying M&C is going to go do in film history with the likes of Once Upon a Time in the West). While I can understand the critical acclaims for Once Upon a Time in the West and while I enjoyed the film, I can think of 50 Westerns that have greater replay value for me. I've probably confused people - and contradicted myself - enough with my take on things so I'll bring it to an end. I certainly would not consider M&C to be Oscar material (not that I'm an expert in such matters) but it is a good film that I can see earning a score of as high as 3/4 stars from me. As was the case with Costner's Open Range, I've cooled just slightly on the film since yesterday (as opposed to thinking more of it as time goes by). Also, if I hadn't seen A&E's Hornblower series I would have scored M&C higher but with that previous viewing experience under my belt, M&C didn't seem as unique. I do however eagerly hope for a sequel or two.

One more thing for those who have seen the film, did I notice it correctly that they also included a quick shot of how sailors go to the bathroom on those ships. I don't recall exactly when it was but I recall it was a scene where they transition to an outside shot of the ship sailing. They pan from the front to the back (umm......bow to the stern, correct?) of the ship and at the very front they show what looked to me like a sailor sitting on one of the beams projecting out from the front-left of the ship with his pants down by his ankles.

Yes, that's why they call it the "head."

I concur with the positive reviews. Marvellous.


Pirates sailing by see the red dots flashing on the sails, and so assume the ship is cursed. Woe betide those who attack a sail with magic dots!

I really enjoyed this movie. I liked the fact that it wasn't battle scene upon battle scene because that's not what it was about. The previews were rather misleading in that respect. I also enjoyed the friendship between Aubrey and the Dr. and how that's what a lot of the movie was really about. Highly recommend it! :)

Saw it today...really enjoyed it.

Bit slow at times but the character driven script made up for it.

And I'll agree with Vegas....the friendship between Aubrey and the Dr. was a great main point of the film.

I was underwhelmed by the film. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the film just lacked that certain something that elevates the material. Maybe it was the energy level of the acting, or the direction involved.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of Sea+.

I honestly didn't like the early part of the film (including the initial battle) very much. It seemed somewhat clumsy and plodding. The place I thought it kicked in was upon rounding Cape Horn and heading toward the Galapagos Islands. I was totally engaged from then until the end.

***½ / ****.

I saw this last night and thought that it could have been a lot more. BTW, I haven't read the books, so, perhaps I'm missing the point... I'll only retort on what I thought of it as a movie, not as a movie based on a book.



I guess I just thought it lacked plot. I loved the action, the sound, the acting... I just wanted a little more.

I haven't read the books either but I do know that while these particular characters are fictional, the story is set in real history and

^ what he said

unfortunately, the theater I saw M&C in was completely packed with the general public (yuch), but I still managed to enjoy the film immensely. Recommended to anyone who likes historical dramas, character studies etc, with some great ship to ship battles thrown in.

I'm sorry, but whoever thinks that this movie is slow and boring should go back to watching Charlie's Angels.

I wonder what these people would think of a Tarakovsky movie.

Interesting. Most of the reviews here and from critics are glowing for this film, yet it is performing rather slow at the box-office. Does this mean that online forums and film critics don't speak for most of the public?


























;)

amen

Loved it.

I know the filmmakers used two real ships for many of the wide shots, but does anyone know how they filmed the storm scenes? My dad thinks it looked too good to be CGI and they must've had those ships out in real waves, but I can't buy that.

Master and Commander - :up: :up:

BTW, if you haven't seen it yet, the History channel has a History
vs. Hollywood episode on this movie and you really get an idea
of some of the details they adhered to when making this movie.
Pretty interesting stuff.

Jason

The general public thought Bringing Down the House was one of the top 10 movies of the year so far. So I'm glad critics and online forums do not speak for them. ;)

They used a giant tank. Seriously. I think they used the same one they used for Titanic ... or maybe the Perfect Storm.

I just came back from seeing this. Despite the fact that the theater was nearly empty (10:15 PM showing), there were about a dozen middle school/high school aged kids who were irritating the shit out of me. I had to do my best to not turn around and tell them to shut the hell up.

Anyway, I liked the movie, though it wasn't what I expected. I expected a lot more action because of the trailers. I thought the acting was good.

My friend didn't really like it, though. I can always tell in the middle of a movie if he doesn't like the movie. He starts getting really fidgety and starts stretching and stuff.

I think people who are "duped" by the trailers may be disappointed. I was "duped", but I liked it, however.

I doubt I'd buy the DVD, though.

http://www.ameritech.net/users/dvdtalk/rome.gif

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I remember hearing Russell Crowe say on some late night talk show that they filmed most of that stuff in the studio's Baja California tanks or somewhere in Mexico.

He also said that the film crew also went out in a boat to film all of the water locations that the ship is supposed to be in. So when the ship is in the Galapagos, we're actually seeing footage that the film crew took of the water around the Galapagos. When the ship is off the coast of Brazil, we're seeing the real water off the coast of Brazil....and so on and so forth.

http://www.ameritech.net/users/dvdtalk/rome.gif

As one of those "stay until the credits end" freaks, I was especially looking to see if they actually filmed in the Galapagos Islands and yes, it's there near the end of the credits.