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The Last Legion [2007] | ![The Last Legion [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dBQcdFK-L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Doug Lefler
Actors: Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Peter Mullan, Kevin Mckidd, John Hannah
Studio: Momentum Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £5.47
You Save: £10.52 (66%)
New (13) Used (4) from £4.50
Rating:  36 reviews
Format: Pal
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.5
EAN: 5060116722024
ASIN: B000YDAJHM
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: February 18, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New - Swift dispatch from UK mainland
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 Undemanding two-and-a-half star hokum November 13, 2007
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
67 out of 77 found this review helpful
One of the year's biggest flops, albeit of the variety that passes completely under the radar such is the public's complete lack of interest in it, The Last Legion turns out to be fairly engaging old-fashioned hokum that lacks the star-power it needs to drive it or the vision behind the cameras to elevate the material. In many ways it's a throwback to producer Dino De Laurentiis' early 50s peplum like Attila the Hun rather than his more cerebral epics like Barabbas. Set during the final fall of the Roman Empire to the Goths and linking the myth of Excalibur with the legendary lost Ninth Legion that inspired many a historical fiction but which many modern historians now believe was simply an accounting error and probably only existed on paper, it sees Colin Firth's general trying to save Thomas Sangster's child emperor in a chase that leads from the sacked city of Rome to the very end of the Empire at Hadrian's Wall with a little help from Aishwarya Rai's warrior woman and Ben Kingsley's teacher with a neat line in magic tricks. Things take a turn for the silly in Britannia with the introduction of a rather bland gold masked villain in a film that already has several bad guys, but it all rallies for a big final battle that, while it doesn't exactly set a new benchmark for screen action and could do with a lot more panache, has an almost pleasingly old-fashioned feel to it.
While it's all another take on the supposed Roman roots of the King Arthur legend, at least it doesn't subject us to leading players as painfully dire and hopelessly disengaged as Clive Owen and Keira Knightley in Antoine Fuqua's otherwise more enjoyable King Arthur: Firth and Rai may be distinctly B-Ark casting, but at least they show signs of having a pulse and deliver more than competent performances even if they lack the genuinely epic quality the film cries out for. Firth in particular seems surprisingly at home as an experienced soldier, finally seeming to have got rid of that constant look of mild indigestion that plagued so many of his earlier big screen performances.
Whereas in the old days the Romans in epics were cast almost exclusively from the ranks of English actors, in this case it's the Scots who seem to be running the Empire with the likes of John Hannah and Iain Glenn pulling the strings, though matters are somewhat confused by the fact that the Goths are also all played by Scots like Kevin McKidd and Peter Mullan. In fact the Scots are everywhere in the cast list, as if the casting director got a job lot of them cheap. Just to pile on the curiosity factor, Ben Kingsley - sorry, SIR Ben Kingsley, as he is billed in the end credits - engagingly overplays his part with a Welsh accent despite his character hailing from somewhere in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall (which would, if historical accuracy were a factor, have given him an Irish accent at that time).
It goes without saying from the prominent billing of Harvey Scissorhands on the credits that the Weinsteins have been at the film with the shears, though here it seems more in an attempt to secure a PG rating than losing anything that really affects the narrative - there's a curious tendency to cut away whenever a major character is killed which isn't helped by some rather average staging of the action scenes. Although supposedly healthily budgeted (with Dino, experience has shown that it's never a good idea to believe the films really cost anywhere near as much as he claims), the film boasts so many producers and credited writers that you get the impression that they ate up a fair portion of the budget before a single shot was ever filmed, leaving the crowd scenes less populated than they should be for a self-respecting epic. Unfortunately director Doug Lefler draws attention to the problem and shows his straight-to-video credentials with his lack of the all-important extreme long shots that epics demand even in the scenes where he has enough extras, leaving the film short on memorable imagery. This is certainly one of the few epics you feel won't lose anything being seen on the small screen instead of the big one.
But it's hard to really dislike in its old Saturday matinee style: it more or less does exactly what it sets out to do without having any pretensions to being anything more profound or meaningful. And how can you not love a film that ends with a sword in the stone and Boyo Benny's Merlin asking a child "Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, hahve ay evah ly-ed two ewe?"
Good action movie! January 3, 2008
Aris N. Panagiotopoulos
28 out of 33 found this review helpful
This film has received its fair share of fully justified criticism for messing up history and events and mixing King Arthur's legend with Roman history in probably a silly way. However this is a film with lot of action that won't let you get bored and with some very impressive scenes because of the special effects. Tiberious's palace at Kapri looks really intimidating and impressive as well as the picture of Rome burning after the attack of the Goths which is a touching scene as it demonstrates the end of a once glorious era. The whole atmosphere in the film is very good and it helps towards underlining somehow the decadence of the once mighty Roman Empire.
The actors are good enough although I wouldn't say that there's any particular performance that stands out of the rest. The beauty that plays the Byzantine warrior from India (!) plays well enough, she's really gorgeous (my God what a face she has!)and she has practiced fighting very well! She does most of the fighting in the film anyway!
Tomas Sangster is a boy playing Romulous the last Roman emperor and his performance is decent, I liked the character the way he played it actually.
Historical accuracy is almost totally absent from this film. From the moment this film mixes Romans with the Excalibur myth, martial arts and Indian warriors etc there's no need to say anything more really! The sad thing with this film is that it could be such a great epic movie but sadly it's not. It deals with a period of history, the last years of the Roman Empire, that has not been dealed with so far from movie producers and this first attempt was a failure although the atmosphere of the movie and the sense of pride and duty towards their emperor and the empire from the Roman commander and his fighters that try to protect him becomes a bit touching from times to times.
A good action movie mostly fictional of course with some impressive battle scenes which had the potential to be an epic one but it fell short of expectations. However because of the action it can be watched again and again easily and for that it will find its way to my DVD cabinet as soon as it gets released!
the ninth legion December 18, 2007
RD
23 out of 25 found this review helpful
Not the best of movies but watchable for some light entertainment. There are some good fighting/battle scenes but the overall plot is a little below par and the same goes for bits of the dialog. I felt like I was watching a B movie with celebreties at some points.
Nothing dramatic and although I wouldn't scare you away completely, there are much better films out there.
 Damn. It should be LONGER December 17, 2007
V. K. Manglaveras (thessaloniki, greece)
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
The last legion is one of the best part historical accurate and part fiction drama films i have ever seen.
Just like king arthur and kingdom of heaven this film delievers the goodies with a great cast including firth, kingsley and the beautiful rai, the ex mrs universe.
Although it is based on manfredis' fiction novel of the same title TLL shows a lot of things which happened in reality like the deposition of the last western roman emperor romulus (31rst of october 475 - 4rth of september 476) from the general Odoacer who afterwards became the first barbarian king of italy from 476 to 493 and instead of ruining the empire he united the roman empire under the sole soverighnity of the eastern roman emperor of new rome = constantinople named Zeno (474-491) who became the first sole emperor of the empire since the reign of the great theodosius 100 years before (379-395) and this act of odoacer is recorded in the movie (his agreemnent with constantinople).
Of course afterwards the movie became more fiction than reality because in reality romuluis never went to britain and had nothing to do with artorius = king arthur but vortigern king of britain was also a real character.
Anyways, i wanted the movie to be longer. The whole gaul adventure which the book describes the dealings of the travellers with the last roman governor of gaul named syagrius (464-481) was ignored and also we didn't see the eastern emperor zeno and his dealings with the ambassadors of odoacer.
That was the only thing i didn't liked and i hoped those events will be in a future dvd extended version.
An underestimated movie which was not promoted as it should have and grossed just $25-$26 millions worldwide which is a shame.
I Hope the dvd sales and rentals will be better than the theatrical gross.
This dvd will be aded to my collection and find it's place together with the other epics like TROY, ALEXANDER, 300, ATTILA THE HUN, GLADIATOR, KING ARTHUR and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (to speak only for the latest after 2000 historical releases).
 An enjoyable watch March 28, 2008
Mrs. Julie B. Holder (Gloucester, England)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
After reading such different views in the reviews i rented the film in case it was really that bad! I watched it with my older teenagers and their friends (a highly critical bunch) and we all agreed we enjoyed the film. No-one had read the book and we were not interested in historical accuracy. We just wanted an enjoyable watch. Excellent fight scenes and a good story competently acted. Lovely men for the ladies and a beautiful female warrior for the men to enjoy!
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