Napoleon (2002)

just watch it!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Blistering performances.

Being interested in the subject and seeing the amazing cast it had, I thought i would enjoy this mini-series and put both DVDs (eps 1-2 and eps 3-4) on my Netflix. What a disappointment! I had to force myself to get through episode 1. I thought it might get better with the second episode, but no such luck. The story keeps dragging, the acting is uninspiring, the dialog plain boring and almost laughable. Yes, this is one of the most expensive European productions ever made, but no matter how much money they spent on this, it still looks cheaply done. The colors are so over the top vibrant and colorful that it lacks any authenticity. And honestly, with its $46 million budget, would it have been so hard to find a real, beautiful sunset near the French sea cost instead of putting Clavier in front of a super fake looking green screen??? What was the most disappointing about this production is the acting. And honestly, you can't blame the actors for it. The script and dialog they had to work with is just terrible, over dramatic and way too wordy. Not everything needs to be explained. Not every character's name need to be mentioned in every single line of dialog. Less is more. But here, more is the norm. Well, I now realize I need to log onto Netflix, and delete my next film in my queue: Napoleon Disc II.

On the plus side: the costumes and interiors are magnificent, Isabella Rossellini is good as Josephine, the historical events depicted are presented accurately, and the series gets better as it goes along (don't give up after the muddled first episode!).On the minus side: we never really get a feel for what Napoleon actually stood for or why and how he was such a military genius, the film dwells on his private life when it could be dealing with the huge social and political issues of the time, the actors playing some of the secondary characters are laughably bad (Murat, Ney, Marie-Louise), and one has to strain to hear the dialogue (due to the foreign accents, background noise and music).As for Christian Clavier, it's amazing how the comments on his performance stretch from "brilliant" to "trash." My own view is that he was off the mark as the younger Napoleon, but as the mature Napoleon had basically the right look and plenty of gravitas.A good contribution to the body of film about the Emperor but also full of flaws.

This is the best film about Napoleon I've ever seen! This is even the best than every remake abel gance himself made later. Excellent! Voted 10! This I wrote for the 1927 version by Abel Gance. I wish he directed this epic. What a disappointment this mini series was. This was the dream of Abel Gance to make a series like this. I wish he directed this. He would've made a marvelous epic. Not a boring one like this. voted 5.

What a shocking disappointment. I bought the Napoleon 2 DVDs edition, as a gift to myself for Christmas and, what a waste of money . and time waiting for it. The product is so bad in contents as in features; it even lacks the actual almost standard Close Captioning.I have read some biography and historical books about Bonaparte and his time, and I can't stand for Depardieu casting Fouche, I think it could be better as a Marshal, Ney, Lannes of somebody like them.Napoleon casting actor is anything but `imperial', for the man who forged by himself the greatest empire in human history. Where are the famous Marshals? Across hours and hours of soap opera, all we see is two or three puppets in uniform. The top of ridiculous is the mid-eastern bodyguard Napoleon got from his Egypt campaign, remarkable.You get tired of see Napoleon, alone, reading papers or playing with maps and lead soldiers, lost in the immensity of the palaces, and the overacting (as many of his plays) Malkovich spying through doors. Napoleon spent his years as France head of state, when in office, surrounded by tens and hundreds of clerks, messengers, ministers (not only Police - Fouche and Foreign Affairs - Talleyrand), aides du camp, and . in first place, his `Joint of Chiefs', leaded by the superb Marshal Berthier.At last, but not least in the insanity, the time (and the weight on the drama) gift to Josephine de Beauharnais. She was an important lady of French high society, but the emperor's romance with her was short in time - against the almost 20 years he commanded France destiny - and, more important, probably was calculated from his part, because the important connections and relations she had in society, but he, as a young officer of provinces, lacked.Is true, he was fair with her son, Eugene de Beauharnais, named him general, prince of the empire and Viceroy of Italy. Eugene was fighting for his stepfather from 1796 to 1814. But, he earned all these awards because his own merits as a fine officer and not because his mother influenced over the emperor.