Movie Review: Wonderland (2003)

A crime drama inspired by real events, Wonderland spends all its time with sordid characters, offering unsatisfactory story fragments and an overabundance of style.

It's 1981 in Los Angeles, and former porn star John Holmes (Val Kilmer) is scraping a living by drifting around drug dealers. His girlfriend Dawn Schiller (Kate Bosworth) stands by her man despite his abrupt and unexplained absences. After scoring some drugs, John returns to their motel room in an agitated state. The next morning the media reports four people have been murdered at a known drug house on Wonderland Avenue.

One of the victims is the girlfriend of drug dealer David Lind (Dylan McDermott). He reveals to the police the murders were retaliation by goons working for crime lord Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian), because the victims had earlier robbed Nash's house. Lind claims Holmes was involved in both the original robbery and the revenge murders. Holmes is arrested; he has a different version of events, while his estranged wife Sharon (Lisa Kudrow) tries to remain uninvolved.

The strongest emotion elicited by watching Wonderland is the overwhelming need to take a shower. With the marginal exception of Sharon, director and co-writer David Cox populates his film with sleazoids, slimeballs, and losers. Whether any of them live or die is of little relevance, as none of them are provided with meaningful depth, backstory, or empathetic attributes. 

The possible involvement of an ex-porn star provides a dose of notoriety for a case of irrelevant bad guys killing other irrelevant bad guys, but the extent of Holmes' guilt or innocence never registers as a compelling dramatic hinge. The witless plot zooms in from multiple perspectives on events immediately before and after the robbery and subsequent murders, in a case of opposing unreliable narratives colliding into a stalemate. With nothing settled at the end of 104 minutes, walls of postscript text attempt to fill in the blanks but only confirm the lack of focus. 

Lind and Holmes are brought to life in suitably grungy performances by Dylan McDermott and Val Kilmer, but they are far from eliciting sympathy. Kate Bosworth is also invested in Dawn, but can do little with the prototypical character of a naive young woman unaware of the sewer she's in. Lisa Kudrow allows Sharon to rise above, the only character aware of the stink and moving in the other direction.

In the absence of meaningful arcs and substance, Cox defaults to layering on the style, and at least Wonderland offers challenging visuals and an artistically attractive interpretation of ripped-from-the-headlines. The images pop, but the story lacks wonder.



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Movie Review: Heat (1995)

A contemporary crime drama, Heat unites legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in a masterful story of two men on either side of the law willing to do anything to achieve success in their chosen professions.

In Los Angeles, crime boss Neil McCauley (De Niro) and his gang execute their latest score: an audacious robbery of bearer bonds out of an armored truck. Neil's regular and dependable gang members include Chris (Val Kilmer), Michael (Tom Sizemore) and Trejo (Danny Trejo). The unstable Waingro (Kevin Gage) is a late addition to the team, and he perpetuates a bloodbath that results in three security guards being killed. Neil's fence and outlet to the legitimate world is Nate (Jon Voight), and he tries to arrange a buy-back deal for the stolen bonds. But the victim, corrupt businessman Roger Van Zant (William Fichtner), decides that severe revenge is the best response.

The robbery brings Neil gang to the attention of Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and his crew of investigators, and they place Neil's men under surveillance. Neil meets and starts a relationship with Eady (Amy Brenneman), although his personal philosophy is to never get emotionally involved with anyone. Vincent's marriage to Justine (Diane Venora) is in trouble thanks to his obsession with work, and his stepdaughter Lauren (Natalie Portman) is feeling the strain. Meanwhile Chris has a gambling problem and fritters away his crime proceedings, much to the disgust of his wife Charlene (Ashley Judd).

Vincent attempts to nab Neil's gang as they strike against a precious metals depository. But Neil is half a step ahead, and a dangerous chase game ensues, both men determined to continue doing what they do best.

Directed and written by Michael Mann, Heat is a dark, complex, and character-driven crime story, inspired by real events and delivered by a superlative cast in top form. For the first on-screen pairing of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (they both starred in Godfather Part II but in different time eras), Heat conjures up an existential duel suitable for two of the all-time finest actors to sink their teeth into. The film runs for a mammoth 170 minutes, but never drags. Mann injects enough texture, human emotion and deep character interactions to keep the drama humming along at a steady clip.

Heat never betrays its character motivations. At the centre of the film are two professionals who care deeply about what they do and will sacrifice everything to achieve their objectives. Vincent is on his third marriage, and fully understands that his home life is doomed to suffer as his real attachment is to the task of bringing scum to justice. Neil is dedicated to the craft of high-stakes heists, and has simplified his life down to the principle of being ready to abandon absolutely everything and flee in 30 seconds or less. Neither man will yield, and they admit as much to each other in a seminal meeting over coffee about halfway through the film.

Mann surrounds Neil and Vincent with a memorable group of hoods with their own stories and motivations, elevating Heat into a multi-faceted crime epic. Chris has a sizable gambling problem undermining his marriage. Michael has managed his finances much better, and can call it quits whenever he likes. Waingro is a nutcase, and his unpredictable behaviour will play a key role in the story. Van Zant is the wolf in expensive clothing, a tailored suit hiding a monstrous ego and murderous ambitions for bloody revenge. Despite most of the men being despicable criminals, Heat does not forget that they are all also human beings.

The women serve to humanize the men, and the key characters are grounded by domestic fronts that serve as reminders that there may be more to life than crime, investigation and violence. Justine is aching to reclaim her man but is also not beyond hurting him, while her daughter Lauren is in a lot of emotional trouble. Eady unexpectedly eases her way into Neil's heart, adding a reason for him to question whether tangling with the dogged Vincent is worth the risk. And Charlene suffers the cruelest fate, having to contend with all her husband's risk-taking but enjoying none of the rewards, as he gambles away his cut from every score.

And when it's time for the action set-pieces, Mann delivers some astounding beauties. The initial armored truck assault is short, sharp, vivid and ultimately brutal. An ambush in an abandoned drive-in parking lot follows, revealing the depth of treachery among thieves. The highlight is a jaw-dropping and prolonged street shootout after a botched bank hold-up, Neil and his men attempting to fight their way out of Vincent's suddenly tightening noose, Mann turning a section of Los Angeles into a harrowing war zone complete with blazing assault rifles. And the climax works its way through a series of score-settling punctuation marks, ending with a tense one-one-one showdown on the LAX tarmac.

Heat adds a smooth aesthetic augmented by atmospheric music. The Dante Spinotti cinematography is cool and crisp, often making use of the city lights by night to punctuate dark blue hues with glittering gold. Elliot Goldenthal provides a moody and evocative music score.

Ambitious in scale yet taut in execution, Heat shines at a white hot temperature.

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Movie Review: Top Gun (1986)

A glitzy drama and clunky romance set in the world of elite navy aviators, Top Gun has all the slickness of a polished sales pitch, and all the emotional depth that can be expected when hardware is the subject of worship.

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is a cocky, instinctive naval pilot, living under the cloud of his father, also a Navy pilot who died in mysterious circumstances. Maverick flies F-14A Tomcats with his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). After a close encounter with enemy MiG 28s over the Indian Ocean, Maverick and Goose are chosen to join the elite "Top Gun" aerial combat training school at Miramar, Florida.

The intense training features numerous flights to sharpen dogfighting skills, overseen by the legendary "Viper" (Tom Skerritt) and "Jester" (Michael Ironside). Maverick finds himself in an alpha male competition with Tom "Iceman" Kazanski (Val Kilmer), a more cerebral pilot, for the prize of top graduate. Maverick also starts a steamy relationship with Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood (Kelly McGillis), an astrophysicist and civilian instructor. With the course drawing to a close and Maverick locked in an intense competition with Iceman, tragedy strikes, severely shaking Maverick's self-belief.

A thrilling piece of 1980s confectionery, Top Gun is ridiculous, mindless fun. Every man has a hokey nickname, every woman melts in front of the military uniforms, and every line of dialogue is cringe-worthy. The romance is klutzy, Kelly McGillis puts herself in the running for least convincing astrophysicist in film history (have there been others?), and the music serves as a reminder about how terrifically awful 1980s soundtracks could contrive to be. The geopolitics are at kindergarten level while the manly competitions make it all the way to Grade 8 maturity.

And yet. There is something about the unabashed gloss of Top Gun that allows it to rise above. Director Tony Scott displays a genuine flair for transforming lethal machinery into objects of desire, and Top Gun is filled with quite magnificent aerial photography. The glistening sun, the open skies, the golden silhouettes, and the roar of overpowered fighter jets designed to manoeuvre and kill with maximum efficiency are combined to create an irresistible aesthetic. As an advertisement for life as a navy pilot, the film is an undisputed winner.

Which all means that the story is utterly irrelevant, and serves as a distant backdrop to the sexually charged engines and people. And it's really best not to look too closely at all the decisions made by the military brass, culminating in sending young men off to war on their graduation day and shoving a pilot into combat while he is in a near catatonic state. It's drama torn from the pages of ideas too foolish to be considered as comics.

Tom Cruise continued his rapid rise to the very top with a magnetic performance as the moody, motorcycle-riding, Ray-Ban wearing Maverick. He does not need to act as much as be present and allow his natural pizzazz to glow, and he just radiates energy on the ground and in the sky. Val Kilmer displays a different kind of intensity, still charismatic but adding a snarly meanness. The other guys range from marginally goofy (Edwards as Goose) to pure macho (Skerritt and Ironside, taking it all too seriously).

The black hole is Kelly McGillis, and she threatens to swallow up the entire film with a stunningly unconvincing performance that screams vapid love interest, with Charlie reduced to a ten year old's idea of a fantasy woman. Deep in the cast, Meg Ryan shows up as Goose's wife and Tim Robbins makes a late appearance as a co-pilot.

While most of the individual elements fall flat, as a whole Top Gun amounts to a nonsensical success story. The film rides a crazy, unapologetic energy, buying into its own boyish joy, taking the breath away and inviting all to be swept into the thrill of the danger zone.

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Movie Review: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

A convoluted neo-noir aiming for a hip comic vibe, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang trips all over its attitude and fails to find a soul in the tale of multiple murders set among the Hollywood set.

Harry (Robert Downey Jr) is a petty thief who crashes an audition while escaping the police. He is mistaken for a method actor with talent and ends up at a swanky Los Angeles pool party at the house of retired actor Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen). Harry reconnects with childhood crush Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), and meets private investigator Perry (Val Kilmer), with Perry ostensibly hired to help Harry prepare for an acting role as a detective.

Harry rides along with Perry on a seemingly routine nighttime surveillance assignment that ends with the two of them witnessing a car flying into a lake with the body of dead woman inside. Soon after, Harmony's sister is reported to have committed suicide, but Harmony believes that she may have been murdered. Harmony thinks that Harry is an actual detective and wants him to investigate. Harry and Perry soon find themselves threatened, tortured and embroiled in a sordid familial dispute, as the body-in-the-lake suddenly resurfaces and links emerge between the cases of the two dead women.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang races ahead in search of a cool buzz, but in doing so, the film leaves behind essential elements needed to engage. The characters are introduced in the most cursory manner, and none are anywhere near likeable. To make matters worse, bad things happen to irrelevant people. For the longest time, the dead woman in the lake is an unknown victim. When her identity is revealed, she is no more interesting. And Harmony's sister is dead before she is even introduced. The lack of empathy for any of the characters, dead or alive, becomes a gaping black hole undermining the film's appeal.

Much of the fault lies in the script by Shane Black, best known for penning Lethal Weapon, and here also taking over directing duties for the first time. Black has clear intentions to create a relatively comic film noir packed with irony and irreverence to catch a young audience. It's an admirable goal, but the mix is not quite right. The best moments, such as Harry finding the dead woman's corpse in his bathroom, work more as almost outright comedy, punching holes in any pretense that this could also be a grim drama. Meanwhile, Harry's narration is most unhelpful. Black intentionally aims to make the narrative as complex as possible in a nod to impossible-to-follow classics like The Big Sleep. But Harry's narration, rather than building a sense of cynical frustration, is irritatingly smug.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is left with loads of style devoid of substance, and reasonable performances from a willing cast. Downey Jr. deploys his vaguely puzzled persona to good effect, and is ably supported by a more-engaged-than-usual Val Kilmer. Michelle Monaghan is game but not helped by a character that gets caught in the wide gulf between potential femme fatale and madcap comedienne. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang takes a few shots, mostly misses, and lands with a disappointing clang.

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The Movies Of Val Kilmer

All movies starring Val Kilmer and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Top Gun (1986)

True Romance (1993)

Tombstone (1993)

Batman Forever (1995)

Heat (1995)

Wonderland (2003)

The Missing (2003)

Alexander (2004)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

The Snowman (2017)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: True Romance (1993)

A stylishly violent crime misadventure, True Romance is joyously out of control. The story of a newlywed couple who stumble onto a bag full of cocaine is crazy fun.

In Detroit, Clarence (Christian Slater), a big fan of Elvis, meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette) at a movie theatre. Although she is a call girl sent by Clarence's boss as a birthday gift, Alabama genuinely falls in love with Clarence, and he reciprocates. They get married almost immediately. Clarence is not afraid of violence, and decides to eliminate Alabama's psychotic pimp Drexl (Gary Oldman) to prevent him from re-emerging in Alabama's life. In the bloody confrontation that ensues, Clarence does kill Drexl, and inadvertently also steals a briefcase full of uncut cocaine worth millions.

After a quick visit to his dad Clifford (Dennis Hopper), Clarence and Alabama head to Los Angeles, where they connect with Clarence's buddy Dick (Michael Rapaport). Dick arranges a meeting with fellow actor Elliott Blitzer (Bronson Pinchot), who may be able to arrange for big-shot movie producer Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek) to buy the drugs. But mobster types including Don Vincenzo (Christopher Walken) and enforcer Virgil (James Gandolfini) want their drugs back, and they are hot on the tail of Clarence and Alabama, and don't care who they hurt to get their hands on the merchandise.

Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, True Romance was Tarantino's first involvement with a major studio, big budget production. Scott rearranged the story into a linear structure and altered the ending, but otherwise kept Tarantino's vision intact. The result in a madcap, ultra-violent adventure, insanely enjoyable but just lacking the laser sharp edge that would emerge one year later with Pulp Fiction.

After a somewhat stuttering start, once Clarence and Alabama get their hands on the illicit drugs the film takes off on a dizzying, fast-paced trip into a world of unimagined opportunity, bloodshed and larger than life characters. Everything about True Romance is hyper-intense, and the film creates a vortex of wild activity that demands attention. Scott amplifies all the film's elements, from Clarence's oversized Cadillac to the garish colours of the Los Angeles hotel where he holes up, to the stomach-churning rollercoaster ride that serves as a negotiations venue with Elliott. The shoot-outs, villains and attitudes are no less magnified.

Tarantino conjures up two exceptional face-off scenes. In the first Don Vincenzo has Clifford tied up and is demanding to know the whereabouts of Clarence. Instead Clifford launches into a history lesson about the ethnic origins of Sicilians that will do his chances of surviving the ordeal no good at all, but then that's Clifford's point. The second scene features Alabama having to survive the brutal henchman Virgil without giving up the location of the briefcase. Both scenes are playful, savage and ingenious in celebrating sacrifice for a cause.

With a cast that also includes Christopher Penn and Tom Sizemore as police detectives; Brad Pitt as Dick's zoned-out roommate; Samuel L. Jackson as Big Don (a random thug); and Val Kilmer as the spirit of Elvis, True Romance boasts an incredible cast, with committed performers in almost every role. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette make for an engaging and ridiculously cute couple in the middle of the mayhem, while Rapaport, Pinchot and Rubinek form an often hilarious triangle of self-obsessed Hollywood types tilting into dangerous territory.

And of course the film ends with Tarantino's traditional over-the-top showdown, a multi-pronged hotel room battle with plenty of ferocious firepower and precious few survivors. The romance is true, but it's just a spark for what proves to be true pandemonium.

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Movie Review: Batman Forever (1995)

A limp entry into the tiresome superhero comic book adaptation genre, Batman Forever offers nothing new beyond the usual ridiculous chases and over the top characters spouting warmed-over dialogue.

In Gotham City, Harvey Dent, better known as Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), is the latest villain terrorizing the populace and trying to lure Batman (Val Kilmer) into a trap. Two-Face has a split personality and a split physical appearance, normal on one side and hideous on the other, the result of an acid attack. Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) arrives in town to help analyze Two-Face's motivation. It does not take long for Chase to fall in love with the mysterious Batman.

Meanwhile, Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) is a lowly employee at Wayne Enterprises, but also a mad genius. Feeling slighted by Bruce Wayne's dismissal of his brain wave capture invention disguised as a television image enhancer, Nygma is driven insane. He takes on the persona of The Riddler, and teams up with Two-Face to spread his evil device throughout Gotham, sucking power from everyone's brain.

When Two-Face attacks the circus in an attempt to lure Batman, young trapeze artist Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell) is the only family member to survive. Wayne takes Grayson under his wing, and gradually Grayson takes on the superhero persona of Robin, but still seeking to kill Two-Face despite Batman's advice that revenge solves nothing. With Chase falling for both Batman and Wayne, Batman grudgingly teams up with Robin as they try to put a stop to the evil reign of Two-Face and The Riddler.

Batman Forever suffers from a severe case of retread. Two-Face is a rehash of The Joker from Batman, all maniacal laughter and no substance. The villain as a physically and emotionally scarred man monster is none too inventive for the series. The Riddler suffers from being an amalgamation of Jim Carrey's other, better characters from other, better movies. And Nicole Kidman follows in the footsteps of blonde sisters Kim Basinger and Michelle Pfeiffer, except that Chase Meridian is not that interesting.

Director Joel Schumacher takes over the reins from Tim Burton, and steers the series into a lighter, more comical direction, stripping the foreboding darkness that worked well in Batman Returns. This time around, Carrey does get to deliver some clever one-liners, but the prevailing lack of seriousness, characterized by The Riddler's machine looking like a goofy juicer, hinders Batman Forever as it tries to latch on to anything beyond obvious set-pieces and stale chases.

Val Kilmer steps into the batsuit and offers little, the Bruce Wayne scenes in particular suffering from a lack of intensity as Kilmer appears generally disinterested. The script offers half-hearted attempts to revisit Wayne's childhood, but the film seems to abandon any notions of character development as too serious for the target tone.

Jones laughs a lot and does little else, while Kidman's Chase limits the scope of her psychological investigation to determining whether Batman or Wayne would make for a better boyfriend. The introduction of Robin into Batman's life becomes the most interesting sub-plot to the movie, Chris O'Donnell finally injecting some emotion and human conflict as he weighs revenge against destiny.

Batman Forever is a sequel looking for a purpose, and finding none it flaps clumsily into the night, labelled easily forgettable.

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Movie Review: Tombstone (1993)

A comprehensive recounting of Wyatt Earp's life immediately before and after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone is a thoughtful and often absorbing western.

It's the early 1880s, and brothers Wyatt (Kurt Russell), Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) Earp relocate to the booming town of Tombstone, Arizona, looking to settle down and make some money. A retired lawman, Wyatt wants to stay away from matters of law and order, and just focus on business. In Tombstone he reunites with his old friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), a gunfighter, gambler, womanizer and hard drinker, suffering from an unshakable bout of tuberculosis. Despite having the committed companionship of Mattie Blaylock (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), Wyatt is captivated by Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany) a free-spirited traveling singer.

The Earps' desire for a quiet life is disrupted by marauders known as the Cowboys, led by "Curly Bill" Brocius (Powers Boothe), and including Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) and Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang). A series of distasteful encounters with the Cowboys convince the Earps to once again become lawmen, and Virgil's desire for Tombstone to be gun-free triggers the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Afterwards, Wyatt, Doc and their supporters go after the Cowboys in a wild rampage through the west that will only end when Wyatt's lust for vengeance is satisfied.

A troubled production that aimed for a faithful, epic re-telling of the Wyatt Earp story with all other characters explored in-depth, Tombstone suffered from ambition that exceeded realistic ability, and also butted heads with Kevin Costner's competing, and inferior, production of Wyatt Earp (1994). Tombstone ended with screenwriter Kevin Jarre fired as director, George Pan Cosmatos nominally appointed as director to rescue the runaway production, and star Kurt Russell actually calling the directorial shots, trimming some of his own scenes to reign in the movie's scope.

Given the production challenges, the final film is much better than it has any right to be, and may be one of the most compelling versions of the Earp story. Admittedly the start is slow, and too many rough-and-ready characters are introduced in dizzying succession, with too few of them allowed the luxury of time to properly develop. Lawmen, politicians, bad-guys, businessmen, entertainers and their women occupy the world of Tombstone, and Jarre's original intent was full and detailed backstories for all. That film would have run for many hours. This one comes in at 130 minutes, and between Cosmatos, Russell and a team of three editors, it is hammered into coherent shape.

And once the introductions are set, Tombstone shifts into gear, picks up pace, and runs smoothly. While Wyatt remains at the centre of the story, more of the spotlight is shared, as Virgil, Doc, Brocius, Ringo and Josephine receive plenty of attention. With a portrayal of Tombstone as a mud-splattered frontier town, rough around the edges and almost all made of edges, the characters come to life in a realistic, unglamourous setting.

Much credit goes to Russell, who gives Wyatt Earp all the soul missing from other movie versions of the story. Here Earp is tired of a life as a lawman, eager to be free to make money and move on if necessary, curious about the opportunity offered by Josephine, and quite reluctant to get involved with the Cowboys in any official capacity. He is also quick-witted, self-aware, and loyal to his brothers and to Doc Holliday.

Good as Russell is, Val Kilmer is even better, and he steals the film as Doc Holliday. In a performance that should have nabbed Kilmer at least an Academy Award nomination, he animates Holliday with one-liners and a classic world-weariness that only comes when death waits to pounce both from the inside and from every outside corner. Kilmer nails an attitude of supreme self-confidence despite keen awareness of a life wasted on all the wrong priorities, and demands to be the centre of attention as he turns Holliday into a less conflicted version of Earp, still fighting for what's right, but more for the adventure than the principle.

The supporting cast is astounding in its depth of established and future talent, with Robert Mitchum narrating, Charlton Heston making a late appearance as rancher Henry Hooker, and the likes of Joanna Pacula, Michael Rooker, Harry Carey, Jr., Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Priestley, Thomas Haden Church and Billy Zane ensuring that every character is earnestly portrayed.

The story may be familiar, but Tombstone gives Wyatt Earp respectful, complex and clear-headed treatment. The man finally comes to life, along with the diverse group of westerners who helped to make his legend.

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Movie Review: Alexander (2004)

Note: this is a review of Oliver Stone's Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut, released on DVD in 2007, the 214 minute (and longest) version of the film. In addition to the 2004 theatrical release, there is also a Director's Cut (2005) and an Ultimate Cut (2013).

A historical epic, Alexander is a talky but often effective chronicle of the 4th century BC adventures of the young Macedonian, as he conquers most of the known world. More a story of a grand personal quest than a war movie, Alexander almost succeeds in capturing the full scope of a remarkable man.

The film is constructed as a non-linear series of key events from Alexander's life, narrated by the elderly Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins), one of the generals who fought alongside Alexander (Colin Farrell). There are frequent jumps in time, as Alexander's conquests are mixed with pivotal childhood memories.

The movie starts with the massive Battle of Gaugamela, where thanks to bold tactics Alexander's outnumbered forces defeat Persian Emperor Darius III, establishing Alexander's rule over Babylon and most of western Asia. In flashback, his darkly conniving mother Queen Olympias (Angelina Jolie) is introduced. She is a snake lover with sorceress-like characteristics, and she strongly believes that Alexander is destined for greatness because he is the son of Zeus. In fact, Alexander's father is King Philip II (Val Kilmer), who unified the Greeks and laid the groundwork for Alexander's glory before being assassinated.

Alexander has a troubled relationship with both his parents, finding his mother nakedly ambitious and his father a coarse, unsophisticated ruler. Heavily influenced by his teacher Aristotle (Christopher Plummer), the adult Alexander is most comfortable leading his men as they defeat enemies in ever more distant lands, expanding the limits of Greek dominion. In addition to Ptolemy (Elliot Cowan), his generals, friends and followers include his lover Hephaestion (Jared Leto), as well as Cassander (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Cleitus (Gary Stretch).

In northern Asia, Alexander causes fury by marrying Roxana (Rosario Dawson), a local commoner, as in his mind he attempts to unify west and east and prove that he treats everyone justly. Alexander appears to be on a quest to find the limits of the earth, but after many victories and years away from home, his exhausted generals and loyal followers start to question his leadership, as he leads them on an ill-fated incursion into India.

For Oliver Stone, Alexander has developed into an obsession and a labour of love: he has been editing and re-editing the movie into various versions for the best part of a decade. The Final Cut edition takes a throw-everything-in approach, resulting in the most complete, but also the most energy-sapping, version of the story. Considering that there are only two battle scenes in the three and half hours of running length, most of the movie is occupied by conversations about destiny, ambition, loyalty, love, death, betrayal and power. It's a lot of talk, and while the emphasis on character is welcome, it's all starts to become a bit too earnest and strained.

The two battle scenes are a mix of the spectacular, the gory and the confused. Using plenty of ground-level camera shots, Stone does his best to explain battle tactics by labelling various shots with the specific Macedonian flanks, but with everyone helmeted and armoured, it remains difficult to tell apart all the men on galloping horses. The scenes become a collision of carnage, flying limbs, severed heads and gored bodies littering the terrain in quick edits. Disorienting, yes, but also effective in conveying the rivers of blood-letting. And the battle in India gets extra marks for introducing thundering elephants into the fields of butchery.

Alexander is portrayed as openly bi-sexual, carrying on relationships with male lovers, particularly Hephaestion but also his servant, as well as taking Roxana as a wife. Stone injects more emotion and deeper levels of connection between Alexander and Hephaestion, lovers as friends and trusted confidants, while Roxana remains mostly a cold outsider, a woman chosen by Alexander for the primary purpose of producing an heir, and she never evolves much beyond that function.

At the centre of the epic is Colin Farrell, who never seems entirely comfortable with the weight of history on his shoulders, but ironically, his discomfort may be entirely consistent with the subject matter of a young ruler on a rather aimless quest to the ends of the earth. Through Farrell's uncertainty Alexander's ultimate purpose is appropriately questioned: what exactly is achieved through a life of military victory resulting in permanent exile for the victorious troops? Alexander is restless, perhaps always fighting the shadows of his parents, wanting to reclaim the glory of the Greeks but doing so in places so remote that his army becomes an isolated camp, his men unable to enjoy the status of conquerors. What is achieved by ruling the world far from the comforts of home, culture and family?

Angelina Jolie hisses darkly, a woman who hates her husband and adores her son but only as a vehicle towards her own personal glory. Val Kilmer goes over the top and stays there, creating in Philip II an almost Asterix-type ruler, one-eyed, boisterously larger than life, often drunk, and always loud. Jolie and Kilmer threaten to become unintentional comic relief, but do serve the purpose of prompting Alexander to carve his own life away from them both. Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Plummer have relatively small roles as idealized versions of wise old Greek men, dressed in white and eloquently dropping pearls of spoken wisdom.

Much like its subject, Alexander suffers from touches of over-ambition and obsession with an vaguely-defined journey. But the film is also a cerebral and frequently engrossing exploration of an exceptional young conqueror.

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