hardly_b

solid family fun, Mar 1 2003

I've reviewed the VHS version of this movie, and the DVD doesn't add much, but the picture and sound are definitely clearer, and you get a short documentary about the making of the movie. You also get some other documentaries that seem to appear on all of the DVD's of Harryhausen movies, which would interest you more if this was the first such movie you had.

It's a lot of fun, my kids especially like it, and they did a good job putting it on DVD.

first-rate character-driven action movie, Feb 16 2003

I really give this 4.9 stars, since I found one of the early action sequences to be a little less than perfect (you get spoiled seeing people like Jackie Chan and Jet Li in action movies), but the Matt Damon does a surprisingly good job with them, and his usual first-rate job of making the character come to life on the screen.

The plot is only related to the Ludlum novel -- the screenplay was morphed into a nicely claustrophobic character story about a small community of people up to no good, and the movie is cast to perfection with a wonderful collection of actors who deliver terrific performances. The director also directed "Swingers" and "Go", and his indy-film… Read more

my youngest likes it, Feb 16 2003

It's a sweet movie, and it was entertaining enough the first time, but I'll probably never watch it all the way through again. My youngest daughter liked it quite a bit when she was 4-7, and it became part of the regular rotation of comfort films. The music is good, the values are very family oriented, and it's very wholesome.

I got curious about the family on which this movie was based, and I couldn't learn much, but there was such a family, and they are apparently still around and still very rich and connected. One thing I learned is that the person on whom the John Davidson character is based died shortly after marrying the Biddle daughter, although he did leave at least one son. I… Read more