As to the David Poland review, that's not much of a compliment to say it's the best sword and sandal movie of the past 2 years. How many have their been? Troy and ..... what? The Four Feathers wasn't a sword and sandal movie, neither was The Last Samurai.

I caught a press screening of Kingdom of Heaven last night in Pasadena in which, going in, I was assuming was a test screening. Once the film was over and no survey cards were handed out, a dim realization set in: what I had watched was the finished film. I had read that a three hour cut was screened in January to mostly confused audiences. This final cut clocks in at 135 minutes not including credits and noticeably suffers for it. Directed by Ridley Scott, who at this point in his career is almost beyond reproach, made an extraordinary looking film. Interestingly, this film seems to come full circle for Scott, 28 years after making the extraordinary looking The Duellists. The Duellists, a flawed but passionate film debut, is mostly known for being style over substance in which the edited version of Kingdom of Heaven seems to emulate. But this time, it doesn't seem to be Scott's fault, but yet another casualty of the ignorant majority of test screening attendees and studio lemmings.

The script is certainly there, dense and reverent to both Christians and Muslims, William Monahan gives us an auspicious debut. Definitely a writer to keep an eye on, future projects include Scorsese's upcoming Infernal Affairs remake, The Departed, Tripoli and Jurassic Park IV. The plot centers on a young French blacksmith, Balian (Orlando Bloom) who numbed to life from losing his wife decides to join a crusade to the Holy Land led by his estranged father Godfrey of Ibelin(Liam Neeson). Once there, relationships form with various Christian factions, both good: Tiberias(Jeremy Irons) and King Baldwin IV(a great vocal performance from a prominent actor) and bad: Guy de Lusigna(Marton Csoka) who is married to King Baldwin's sister, Sybilla(Eva Green). Peace is held until a group of Knights Templar led by Guy de Lusigna slaughter Saracen knights and the Muslim leader Saladin's(an amazing film debut from Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud) sister which provokes a Muslim siege on Jerusalem. That's the plot in a rather paraphrased nutshell. Davis Thewlis also shows up as a warrior priest who bestows intermittent advice to Balian and Brendan Gleeson as Reynald, a fellow conspirator to Guy de Lusigna.

My biggest fault with the casting can probably be guessed. To be sure, I like Orlando Bloom and I think he is a good actor with a great career ahead of him, but does he have the gravitas to carry a film like this at this point in his career? In my opinion, no. In the early sequences, when he is paired with Liam Neeson, it works. He works. A paternal bond is felt and sharing the screen with Nesson seems natural. Once Bloom begins to carry the film himself, however, I can feel the energy slowly deflating from his performance, from the film. The requisite rousing speeches at the end have no bite, no emotion. Whatever flaws afflict Braveheart or Gladiator, it was not concerning the doubt of the central character, not to mention Neeson's own underrated Rob Roy. Can this be attributed to the edited version? Possibly, but it's also understandable considering Bloom has to hold his own against one of the best ensemble casts in quite some time. Actors that in comparison are wholly underutilized. Jeremy Irons commands every second of screentime that he has, an unfortunate minority compared to Blooms. Ghassan Massoud will stare right the fuck through you, a great face. Eva Green who some of you will know from The Dreamers shows another great facet of her ability. Jouko Ahola(who was widely scrutinized for his performance as Zishe in Herzog's Invincible and strongest man 97' and 99') just fucking grabbed the screen by it's throat in his one scene. Upon seeing him for the first time in an early battle sequence with medieval weapons, just fucking hold on, man. He was the one I wanted to follow to the Holy Land. He has a few great moments,in that seqence but later in the film don't be surprised if you mentally replace Bloom with Ahola. For a few gleeful moments, I had Conan the Barbarian meets The Holy Wars.

Ultimately, I'm recommending the film based solely on some wonderful performances and the film being arguably Scott's best looking film in 20 years. Bloom's performance didn't grab me but that's subjective and might also be dependent on the choppiness of cutting 30 to 45 minutes out of the film. There are three weeks left......

Thanks, Mur. I'm surprised you noticed so quick, I only made that up a couple hours before you posted it.

I have to admit this movie's trailer is growing on me and I don't want it to.

Hey you lot:

This new exclusive online trailer is pretty good. Take a lookie here:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/kingd ... _menu.html

(Though, I must say...many sequences seem to borrow greatly from LOTR. The mask of the King, and the way the Princess conducts herself...from Gladiator)

I'm changing my super-old prediction. This is looking better, and the theater count (estimated) is great.

Opening: $30 million
Total: $90 million

Especially considering that Heaven opens only a week from today (5.6) and research data suggests that average-viewer interest isn't where it should be.

Ask around and opinions vary. Some marketing executives are pessimistic or doubtful, others are uncertain or mildly positive.

...............................................

It was suggested during research on this story that I examine "comparables" to get an idea how Kingdom of Heaven is doing compared to the awareness and interest levels in Gladiator, King Arthur, Troy and The Last Samurai one week before their respective openings.

The figures come from a private industry tracking service called Cinesys, which provides its data to clients through National Research Group (NRG).

Based on telephone polling, it measures levels of unaided awareness (i.e., people knowing about a film without being told what its title is), general awareness, definite interest, and whether or not seeing this or that film is a first-choice selection.

As of today (Friday, 4.29), one week before opening, Kingdom of Heaven's unaided awareness is at 4%, general awareness is at 65 %, definite interest is at 40 % and 7% of the respondents called it a first-choice selection.

A marketing guy says, "One week from the opening and a 7% first choice for a movie of this cost and stature is toilet time, no matter how you look at it."



One week before its 7.7.04 opening, King Arthur's unaided awareness was 4%, general awareness was at 76%, definite interest was at 48%, and 6% called it a first-choice selection. I don't have the whole spreadsheet before me, but the IMDB says that King Arthur took in just over $51 million domestic.

The next three films had big stars in the lead role, so take these comparisons with a grain of salt.

One week before its 5.14.04 opening, Troy's unaided awareness was 17%, general awareness was 84%, definite interest was at 59%, and 18% called it a first-choice selection. Troy took in $133 million in the U.S., but the foreign totals were at least double that.

One week before its 5.5.00 opening, Gladiator's unaided awareness was 6%, general awareness was 75%, definite interest was 44%, and first choice was at 13%. It ended up with about $187 million domestic and a very healthy overseas gross.

One week before its 12.5.03 opening, The Last Samurai's unaided awareness levels were at 9%, general awareness was 81%, definite interest levels were at 42%, and first choice was at 6%. It was a groaner, but it wound up making $111 million domestic.

One way to build up interest in a high-profile film is to run advance rave reviews from major critics or get Time or Newsweek to run a feature story a week or two out. This hasn't happened.

A friend tells me heard a Kingdom of Heaven radio ad this morning that used a plug from CNN talk-show host Larry King. If that isn't a sign of trouble, I don't know what would be.