Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Reviews
Thanks in no small measure to Perfect Storm designer William Sandell, this handsomely mounted actioner exudes the authentic tang of salt, sweat and gunpowder.
It never achieves the visual elegance or majesty that a David Lean might have provided. The story line isn't the freshest. And yet the film is satisfying all the same.
If this is the stuff that rings the bell on your macho meter, go with my blessing.
To put it plainly, two ships playing tag across the seas is no longer my idea of whoopee, especially at a time when grown-ups are popping up all over the screen with uncensored stories of the eternal affinities and all their variations.
Considering how cinema-unfriendly O'Brian was - the author rarely went to the movies, and had to be persuaded to release the film rights -- Master & Commander manages to loosen the shackles of its dry pages.
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| Original Score: 4/5
Russell Crowe swaggers marvelously in the seafaring adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
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| Original Score: 4/4
For the most part, this epic adventure steers a true course through storm and sacrifice, and arrives triumphant.
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| Original Score: 4/4
The film contains brilliantly crafted scenes and shots that are as compelling as anything seen onscreen this year, but there are also dull stretches in which the movie seems lightweight -- never in its execution but in its conception.
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| Original Score: 2/4
While often exciting and never less than engrossing, Weir's film unfolds at a thoughtful, rather deliberate pace.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
A thrilling, sweeping, visually stunning Napoleonic War adventure set on the high seas.
It's an adventure movie by an artist.
Even if you can't tell a mizzenmast from a gangplank, Master and Commander will take your breath away.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
It's a ride few movies, if any, have ever been able to offer.
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| Original Score: 3/4
The special effects and battle scenes are extraordinary.
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| Original Score: A
Beautifully directed and acted, sumptuously costumed and rigged, with no less a man than Russell Crowe filling out the Captain's britches, this is mythmaking all dressed up and demanding a snappy salute -- heck, it's a Boy's Own adventure to die for.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Fascinating at times, exciting and harrowing at others, and always visually arresting.
| Original Score: B
The movie is like one of those ships in a bottle -- lovely and painstaking, as grand as it is unimportant.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Master and Commander doesn't play fast and loose with the genre, like this summer's Pirates of the Caribbean, and Crowe certainly doesn't mince around like Johnny Depp.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
A rousing, intense and thoroughly convincing adventure yarn that may have even the most committed landlubber longing for a ship and a star to sail her by.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Isn't just a fabulous seagoing spectacle. It's one for the ages.
Arizona Republic
Top CriticIf you're just dying to see Master and Commander, check in for the first 20 minutes, take a leisurely stroll and then return for the finale.
| Original Score: 3/5
Master and Commander is grand and glorious, and touching in its attention to its characters.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Master and Commander hooks you from its nifty opening salvo to its nifty closing punch line.
Seems fated to disappoint everyone except the slick magazines that put it on their covers.
Proof that Hollywood can make a smart $150 million movie that doesn't insult the audience's intelligence.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Scrupulously detailed and handsomely mounted, Master and Commander sails across the screen like a well-built ship, seaworthy and stolid.
| Original Score: B+
An intimate epic of infinite grace.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Master and Commander hums with humor, passion and life.
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| Original Score: 4/5
Master and Commander intends to be an intelligent epic, but it's the epic qualities more than the intelligence that hold us.
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| Original Score: 3.5/5
Mr. Weir will possibly get his fifth nomination for Oscar gold, but everybody -- from costume designer Wendy Stites to Australians Iva Davies, Richard Tognetti and Christopher Gordon, who composed the classic-pop score -- deserves three cheers.
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| Original Score: A-
A masterful and majestic film that leaps off the screen.
This apt and sensitive introduction to O'Brian's ripping maritime tales manages to make a period-piece saga feel modern -- capturing something timeless in the characters of all men.
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| Original Score: A-
For those with any interest in 18th and 19th century seafaring or naval warfare, this is a must-see motion picture. For others, it's an enlightening and entertaining experience, but there's the issue of the slow middle act to overcome.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Crowe delivers a star performance in his trademark incarnation as the thoughtful roughneck.
Crowe's dominating presence and rough charms are put to great use here.
Masterful direction and commanding performances make this epic voyage highly see-worthy.
Rare proof that a gigantic production in contemporary Hollywood can possess a distinctive personality, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World proves as bracing as a stiff wind on the open sea.
A rousing high-seas adventure that sweeps you into another world.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
