Search - Guinevere on DVD

Awful Made For TV Garbage

Dr. Christopher Coleman | HONG KONG | 09/04/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a sucker for retellings of the King Arthur legend; I've read or watched as many of them as I could, from The Mists of Avalon (great book, lousy movie) to the film Excalibur to the musical Camelot to real oddities like John Steinbeck's abortive attempt to modernize the tale and Monty Python's zany parody of it. Guinevere is thus far the most horrible, uninteresting, slow-paced, poorly acted, poorly scripted, ill-conceived and pointless version I've come across. I liked Sheryl Lee in Twin Peaks and Noah Wylie in ER, but here they are as wooden as Merlin's staff. In their defense the writing is appalling and plotting inane, but they and the entire supporting cast take this gorgeous, emotionally complex myth and turn it to frozen muck. It's hard to have a romantic triangle when one of the characters hardly appears--Arthur is little more than a bit part in this film. Almost nothing of the original is retained--none of Arthur's knights appear as characters and the quest for the Holy Grail is completely omitted. The climax of the film is not the ferocious battle in which Arthur is killed by his illegitimate son; that never occurs in this travesty--Guinevere and Arthur live happily ever after and Lancelot simply goes away. No, the climax occurs when Guinevere tells the 5 rebel kings that they ought to give up Arthur and be part of Britian because it's the way to insure the future of the country, and shucks, they all agree and drop their weapons--I'm not kidding. I'd like to say SOMETHING good about this movie, but I can't even complement the hair-styles! Avoid this at all costs, no matter how devout an Arthurian you may be."

Take it or leave it

Sharon | 03/02/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Noah Wyle is about the only one in this movie that can act. The movie itself is so-so as the story plods along on the predictable trail of the constantly retold. Watch it for Wyle's acting - his great sense of facial drama. The guy knows how to act for the camera. Then donate the DVD to the library. Once is enough."

Should've Been Better

Iris | 08/24/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I watched this movie having read that it was based on Persia Woolley's Guinevere trilogy. The books were entertaining--not my favorite Arthurian story, but decent. I have no idea what happened between the writing of the screen adaptation and actual filming, but the book is unrecognizable except for the basic facts: Guinevere marries Arthur, loves Lancelot, etc. I've seen all of the main actors in other things so I know they can act, but this movie gave them so little to work with I'm not surprised by the wooden faces they have in most scenes. The costumes were terrible--a previous reviewer was right, I've seen better at a RenFaire. Cheryl Lee's short hair WAS distracting.

It's a shame that one of the few (maybe only) movies centered around Guinevere had to be so bad. Watch it if you're curious to see how bad for yourself, but remember you'll be giving up ninety-three minutes of your life to do it."