THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR
Rated R for violence
Starring Antonion Banderas, Omar Sharif, Dennis Storhoi and Diane Venora

CineSight Rating *

In the city of Constantinople, at the heart of the Byzantine empire, poet and playboy Eben (Banderas) falls in love. Unfortunately, the lady in question is married, and her husband arranges for Eben to be exiled to the furthest corner of Europe. There he unwillingly joins up with a band of twelve Norse warriors, who are on a mission.

They are travelling to a settlement that has been under attack by some mysterious 'creatures'. The warrior band begins fortifying the village in preparation for the next attack, which comes along with the nighttime mist. The attackers turn out to be a host of ruthless vandals clad in bear skins. After repelling the invaders at great cost, Eben and company track them back to their cave lair. They infiltrate deep into the heart of the cavern to kill the vandal queen, and escape just in time to face another attack by the vengeful vandals. After killing the vandal leader, the invaders lose heart and give up, sloping off back into the mist whence they came. Eben and his hearty blond companions bind up their wounds, bury their dead and toast each other's health before the credits roll.

DVD Features * Widescreen Only Format * Theatrical Trailer * Scene Selection * Interactive Menu * Languages: English * Subtitles: English

CineSight Comments

I didn't particularly enjoy THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR in the theater when it first came out, but I hope my opinion might change after a second viewing on DVD - it didn't! This is probably one of the dullest, flattest, most "ho-hum" action movies I've seen in a long time. There is no pace, tension or real climax and Banderas is completely wasted. It's a pity he had to stoop so low after all the swashbuckling of ZORRO.

The disk package doesn't really add anything in terms of features. The only additional item is the theatrical preview. If you must rent (or buy) THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR, I would recommend watching the movie before the preview. Once you've watched the preview, you've basically seen the movie. The other 1 hour 38 minutes is just filler.