It’s slow and the thin plot doesn’t warrant the extended 139-minute running time. Costner proves the general rule that actors cannot direct (the only exceptions being Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen). He has little sense of moving things along or building character. Instead, it’s like a fifth-rate homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The one saving grace is Annette Bening as the doctor’s sister.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is merely adequate as Maid Marian, while Christian Slater is slightly odd as Will Scarlett.
Production values are poor, with constantly changing light and an often washed-out quality to the footage.
The famous theme song by Bryan Adams ("Everything I Do) I Do It for You") doesn’t even appear in the film, although it is used over the end credits.
Kevin Costner plays an ex-Secret Service agent hired to protect a singer named Rachel (Whitney Houston).
Unfortunately the plot is full of holes, the characters lack motivations for their actions, and the acting is mostly terrible. Gary Kemp is particularly awkward as Whitney’s brash English publicist. Houston is oddly unlikeable throughout. The film would have worked better if you could relate to her. Only Costner impresses.
The plotting is leaden and you can see the twists before they arrive. I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about but I couldn’t. And to add insult to injury you have to hear Whitney murdering Dolly Parton’s once-beautiful “I Will Always Love You”.
Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe star alongside Kevin Costner, who portrays the director of the Space Task Group. Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst is oddly cast as an unsympathetic supervisor.
The film combines their stories with that of the space race itself, bringing to life the nail-biting events of John Glenn’s first American orbital spaceflight.
There's no getting away from the seriousness of the subject matter, but there are funny and tender moments too.
This Superman reboot starring Henry Cavill is faster, noisier and slicker than the 1978 version with Christopher Reeve, but it has none of that film’s charm. Nothing seems remotely real, either. This is partly because of the excessive CGI (it looks like a slick computer game) and partly because of the fast edits. There are no “rules” in terms of the powers we see the heroes and villains use: anything can happen and anything does happen, but none of it carries any real “weight” or actually adds up to anything. The thrown-through-a-building effect is used again and again and ultimately becomes completely mind-numbing – partly because, despite all the endless scenes of destruction, no one ever seems to get hurt
Michael Shannon underwhelms as the evil General Zod. Certainly he’s no Terence Stamp. Amy Adams does her best as Lois Lane, although she’s not given much of a character to develop. Diane Lane is credible as Superman’s Earth mum, while Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner are both watchable as Superman’s Krypton dad and Earth dad respectively
In visual terms, it’s excessively filtered – another distraction.
The joy of Christopher Reeve’s Superman was watching him save lives again and again. Man of Steel has surprisingly little of that. Also, the relationship with Lois Lane – so integral to the Reeve films starring Margot Kidder as Lois – is completely and coldly undeveloped here. There’s virtually no romance.
All in all it’s an expertly made yet completely empty experience.
A very strange epic. With a budget of $172–175 million, was the most expensive film ever at the time it was made.
It’s the future. The ice caps have melted and the old civilisations are now underwater graveyards. A few humans survive as nomads and warriors in battered boats and makeshift floating villages.
The Deacon (Dennis Hopper) is a crazed leader seeking to capture a little girl named Enola (Tina Majorino), who has a map of the mythical “Dryland” tattooed on her back. Jeanne Tripplehorn is Enola’s guardian. And Kevin Costner is the monosyllabic “mariner” who reluctantly becomes their protector.
It’s a technically impressive film that’s also quite daft in many ways. The slight pantomime quality actually works: the world has become more extreme and absurd, and people have degenerated as a result. I was frequently reminded of recent American political rallies, and the villain at the centre of them – an orange, deranged monster – is very reminiscent of someone else in US politics.
It’s such an unusual film. There are hints of Apocalypse Now, Flash Gordon, Mad Max, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi, but it has a peculiar tone and feel of its own. A few things keep greatness at bay:
• Why has Costner evolved to have gills and webbed feet so quickly? It’s described as a “mutation”, but no more detail is given.
• Cheery “adventure” music undercuts the drama – what I think of as the “Spielberg Syndrome”.
• The lighting is all over the place. Bright studio lights come and go with little relation to the weather or environment.
Hugely enjoyable, though.
It’s an engaging story, but a few flaws stop it being remarkable:
1. The very “1980s” music by Ennio Morricone is impressive in places, but is sometimes used jarringly. For example, a crucial encounter at the Canadian border is accompanied by “adventure” music that completely undercuts any dramatic tension that has been built up. I think of this as “Steven Spielberg syndrome” – see Jaws.
2. There are points at which it seems like an episode of The A-Team in the slightly sentimental way it assembles a gang of diverse “good guys against the world” – even though this apparently really did happen, albeit with a slightly larger gang. The fact that one of them is a nerdy accountant who conveniently happens to be handy with a shotgun makes it a little harder to take seriously.
3. There’s something awkward and not-quite-right about Patricia Clarkson as Kevin Costner’s wife. Or maybe her role is just underwritten. Plus, the way the script (by David Mamet) focuses on Eliot’s loyalty to his wife and daughter leads you to think they will end up playing a greater part in the story (kidnapped or murdered) than they ever do.
4. The motivation of Jimmy Malone (Connery) is unclear. Why does he risk everything to help Costner? Why is he so morally upstanding when all the other policemen are crooked? And what’s going on with his Irish-Scottish-American accent?
These points aside, it’s highly enjoyable. De Niro is reassuringly nasty as Capone, gaining weight especially for the role, and Kevin Costner surprises by being highly watchable. Plus, there’s a particularly dynamic scene set in Union Station that involves a mother with a pram being caught in a crossfire.
