Royal Deceit (1994)

That was an excellent one.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Overrated and overhyped

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Before I watched this movie I quickly checked the user reviews, as I usually do, and was excited to see that it came from the source material for Hamlet. So I settled down with the dog and the popcorn. Half-way through I paused the movie and came back here to see if I could find out what the people who posted positive reviews were drinking or smoking because the movie I was watching was awful. From what I can tell it really, really, really, REALLY matters which version you are seeing. If it is not a very long movie, run away. Run. Very. Far. Away. The short version is a hacked up mess that makes no sense and the actors (except Byrne and Mirren and sometimes Bale) look wooden. And the 'crowd' scenes. Oh dear. (By the way this review would have been a lot shorter except for this odd length rule. Hope you weren't bored.)

I saw this film recently, re-released under the title Thrones and Empires, no doubt to try and cash on the Game Of Thrones fan base.Well Game of Thrones it ain't. Its even not a good version of Hamlet. All the more shame its made by a Danish production company, the production values, acting, script and delivery have to be seen to be believed.What amazes me is how on earth they got such an amazing cast to sign on to this terrible piece of crap. Helen Mirren actually gets her boobs out again and I thought she was past doing all that by this stage. There are needless shots of female nudity thrown in, why I have no idea.Christian Bale is probably really glad no one has seen this. The finale is the big fight battle, filled with so many unintentional moments and just god awful staging along with needless smoke everywhere. The whole thing is truly dire. Avoid at all costs!

There is no reason for this movie to exist outside a film school senior project. I get that it's the original myth for Hamlet, but it wasn't the basic story that makes Shakespeare's Hamlet so great. The effect is like replacing the dialog in Romeo and Juliet with text of actual teenagers fighting with their parents and friends. The performances are solid but as others have pointed out the dialog is awful, the "battle scenes" are amateurish and confusing and the costumes and set are dreary. I understand that drab costumes are more authentic but so is someone dying of cholera--that doesn't mean it belongs in the movie.I was fooled by the cast--they can't save the film.

Although I found the movie a little short, and some of the fighting scenes almost laughable, I found the acting incredibly well done..particularly by Gabriel Byrne (after seeing him in Little Women first I didn't know if he could pull of an evil character..he does!) I also found Christian Bales acting one of the best that I have seen in a long time..his knack for accents has been mentioned so many times it's getting almost annoying (not the accent..the mention of it..) but I was quite pleasantly pleased to find out just how good Christian Bale was at acting like a lunatic..with all the talent that he has, it's surprising that he doesn't have all of Hollywood chasing after him to be in their films!