veemoffa

Be prepared to yawn through this film until Patrick Troughton (playing an elderly Greek magician/wise man) comes on screen. Most everyone else sleep-walks through their roles, particularly Patrick Wayne (Sinbad), who sounds like he's reading a telephone book.

The story itself is pretty good, a fantasy-adventure yarn that is meant to be entertaining, not profound. Unfortunately, the dialogue can be just plain awful at times. That, combined with lackluster acting and unimpressive special effects, almost make this movie unwatchable. I say "almost", because Troughton's performance is a joy to see. Not even the Big Trout could turn this into a good movie, but he made portions of it enjoyable.

While Peter Sellers does a good job with his role as a naive minister -- and most of the supporting roles are also well-played -- the film as a whole is not especially interesting. It has a few funny moments, but is mostly yawn-inducing. Most of the characters, from low-life rogues to the stuffy gentry, are cliches that I've seen a dozen times before. What saves this film from being a total failure is a talented cast -- too bad they didn't have a better script to work with.

Not being a huge fan of musicals, I confess I was a little hesitant to see this movie. I found it was actually pretty good, with a lot of dark humor and some really dazzling choreography. This includes a dance number with Richard Gere removing a lot of clothing. (Gasp!) There's nothing particularly memorable about the music itself, and the acting is rather lightweight, but, on the whole, it's a good movie. Queen Latifah is wonderful, stealing every scene she's in; the film is worth watching for her alone.

I'm not sure this movie deserves all the raves it's been getting, but it's still pretty good. Grade: B+