\”**Overall: Ignore the reviews. The 13th Warrior is the best Viking epic of all time!** The greatest historical Viking battle epic you never heard of. Just like Jurassic Park and Westworld, The 13th Warrior is based on a Michael Crichton book and boasts an incredible action director, John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator), Antonio Banderas as the leading man at the top of his career, excellent practical effects and beautiful sets and costumes. Yet, critics obliterated the film, and it failed at the box office, becoming one of the biggest box office flops of all time. I have no idea how this happened or why the reviews are so bad because this is an EXCELLENT movie. The battle scenes in The 13th Warrior are in league with other action epics like Braveheart, The Last Samurai, or Kingdom of Heaven. The story is similar to 300, where a small band of warriors face impossible odds and mixes a little horror with fantastic action and great character development. I’m not sure how The 13th Warrior ended up in the garbage can, but it belongs on the top shelf with the best action epics.”

The Movie Mob

\”This is my kind of film, and so despite that rather dodgy casting of Antonio Banderas - indeed, the pretty ropey casting throughout - I still rather enjoyed it. Banderas is a gentle poet whose eye wanders at the court of the Caliph. That earns him a new job as ambassador to the Northmen and so off he rides, with his sagely friend "Melchisadek" (a few scenes from Omar Sharif). His arrival at their camp is greeted with indifference until a messenger arrives regaling them with horror stories of a terror back home. Their soothsayer advises that thirteen men must return home to combat this evil - but the last of this warlike baker's dozen must not be of their race. Oops - wrong place, wrong time for Antonio and off he sets into an enjoyably paced series of set-piece action scenarios with a Norse theme to them. Luckily, he befriends the charismatic "Herger" (an enthusiastic but pretty hopeless Dennis Storhøi) and intrigues the new king "Buliwyf" (Vladimir Kulich) with his ability to "speak sounds" (write!) and together they gradually bond in the face of their menacing enemy. It's not a great film, no - the dialogue is poor and the acting really isn't up to much ether but there is loads of swordplay, flaming arrows and the whole thing is generally quite light-hearted and good-humoured. This mythology always lends itself well to a good story and the (underplayed) clashes of culture between the rough and ready warriors and their more refined guest adds a little richness to the plot. You won't remember it afterwards, and I bet Banderas probably doesn't want to - but it doesn't hang around and kills an hour and an half easily enough.”

CinemaSerf