I'm not a
very big fan of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the team I refer to as
"The All Style/No Substance Wonder Twins." Together, they made
"Independence Day" (it looked fantastic, but the story was absolutely
horrendous) and "Godzilla"
(ditto). The thing is, in the case of those two movies, the script was
written by Devlin and Emmerich. In the case of "The Patriot,"
the script is written by someone with actual writing talent, Robert Rodat
(the writer of "Saving
Private Ryan"). I always wondered how Roland Emmerich, a man
who can make a movie LOOK great, would do with a script that's well-written.
I got my answer with "The Patriot." You get a really good, spectacular-looking
movie that has some great moments, but unfortunately, there are also a
few moments so cheesy, that you're forced to think that Devlin and Emmerich
must have made a few changes to the script. Damn shame. Still, "The
Patriot" is close to 3 hours long, and I wasn't bored for a second.
Since Mel Gibson stars in "The Patriot," I've heard it being
referred to as an American version of "Braveheart." Uh.....
no. "Braveheart," which was directed by Gibson, is a much better
movie. Would "The Patriot" have been better if Gibson directed
it? One can only wonder.
Anyway, Mel
Gibson is great in this movie. I've always felt that he was a great actor,
but because of his looks (which I'm completely jealous of), his acting
talent is never really taken seriously. Well, lemmie tellya, Mel Gibson
is an incredible actor, and he's terrific in "The Patriot."
However, I need to point out that he's not the best thing in the movie.
That credit goes to another Aussie, the one who plays Gibson's oldest
son, Heath Ledger, That guy is gonna be huge. I remember seeing him in
"10
Things I Hate About You," a movie I liked a lot. Heath Ledger
was good, but he didn't really stand out. He stands out in "The Patriot,"
and the guy is gonna be a superstar.
Chris Cooper (Kevin Spacey's neighbor in "American
Beauty") is in the movie, and even though he's an actor I like
a lot, he seems miscast. Also in the movie is Rene Auberjonois, who was
"Odo" in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
Ya know what?
I really liked "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." That means a lot
coming from me because I was never a big "Star Trek" fan. It's
just that "DS9" (the people in the know refer to it as that) was
a gritty, realistic character study rather than a lame "alien of the
week" kinda show. Of course, because of that, many Trekkies (or Trekkers...
whatever the hell they wanna be called now) hated it, and the show was always
treated as the redheaded stepchild of the bunch. That's a shame because
it was a really great show.
So anyway, where was I? Okay, yeah, Rene Auberjonois is in "The Patriot"
as a minister, or a preacher, or some other kinda authoritative person in
church. He's very good, as is Adam Baldwin (no relation to Alec... or William...
or Stephen... or Daniel). I remember him a whole lotta years back in a movie
called "My Bodyguard." I also remember him in "D.C. Cab."
My favorite movie that I saw him in was an obscure movie where he played
a hitman along with Roy Scheider in "Cohen & Tate," a movie
that I don't think anyone else saw (which is too bad, because it's an undiscovered
classic). I've seen him over the years in a movie here and there (prior
to this one, it was "Independence Day," so I guess Roland Emmerich
likes him), and it's good to see him again. He's a good actor.
The bright shining light in the movie is Lisa Brenner. Damn, she's gorgeous.
I don't know much about her prior work, but I know that she was "Jenny"
in the AWFUL show on MTV, "Undressed" (would someone PLEASE tell
MTV to go back to playing music videos... and not that crap where you only
show half the video, like in that overrated "TRL" show). So yeah,
Lisa Brenner is beautiful. She plays the chickie who Heath Ledger wants.
So there you have it. I liked "The Patriot" well enough, but some
moments were so cheesy, I had to turn my head. But it had good acting, lotsa
violence, and a really hot gal named Lisa Brenner. So go see it.
Scale of 1-10: 7