Ang Lee
(The Ice Storm and
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) creates the senses of the Civil
War tremendously with style and grace but there was something missing, whether
it was a big name actor or the fact I am a big fan of the old series
North and South, I don't know.
The character of Roedel was played very well and no one comes to mind who
could of played him better. The character was only 19 and fighting in the war
made him grow up very fast. Jewel (don't quit your day job!) on the other had
got paid for doing absolutely nothing except for wapping her tit out to breast
feed every two seconds which made Roedel's jaw drop.
For a two hour film it didn't cover much and finished where I started to get
interested, this film is no Gone with the Wind, maybe Gone with the
Rubbish.
Overall, the picture quality is excellent and the only fault I found was a
tiny bit of buzziness when gunshots where heard. The soundtrack is in Dolby
Digital 5.1.
I felt that I learnt more about the film from its extras has there was a
Behind the Scenes section and a Trailer, plus Interviews
with some of the cast that had them talking about their characters.
What I can't understand is why do this movie in the first place? It has been
done before and what a waste of money. Ang Lee is a great director and
deserves the recognition, but if he wants to teach history write a book!
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
