Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Prismark10 The first Hornblower film is based on the books by CS Forester, however it is clear that some of the flavour of the books is hard to replicate on the screen especially on television when frankly to mount naval battles and widescreen sea based shots require a Hollywood style budget.Set in 1793, in The Even Chance, we see a young 17 years old midshipman, Horatio Hornblower (Ioan Gruffudd) getting to grips with the navy, he feels the full effect of sea sickness but even worse bullying from senior officer Jack Simpson (Dorian Healy.)Luckily for Hornblower when Britain goes to war with the French he is transferred to another ship led by Captain Pellew (Robert Lindsay.) Under Pellew Hornblower thrives, his crew respects him, he shows bravery, tenacity, cunning and intelligence.However it is not long before Hornblower duels with the sadistic and despicable Simpson.This is a rip roaring adventure but I did find the script and some of the scenes a little cheesy. Some of the staging looked a little sub-par even for television but at least it was not dull.

astacvi-1 I was frankly not expecting much because my exposure to Ioan Gruffudd has been exclusively the dismal Fantastic Four movies. I was stunned to learn that he can actually act -- or could once, anyway -- and his performance completely carries this film. The rest of the cast, for the most part unfamiliar to me as an American viewer, do a fine job as well. I would make something of an exception for Dorian Healy, but I fault him less for his performance than the script for giving him so little to work with other than moustache-twirling villainy. That's a minor nitpick, though. The acting is solid across the board, with a great supporting performance by Robert Lindsay. In general, the action moves along briskly, the characters are well-defined, and the overall production values are surprisingly high. There are a few weak special effects where the budget shows a bit, but for the most part this is a really well-mounted production. The sets and costumes are top-notch, and a lot of attention seems to have been paid to period detail. It would be easy to believe this was a big-screen theatrical production if not for the periodic commercial fade-outs (which, by the way, were uniformly ignored on the telecast I watched -- is it really that difficult, Ovation?) Oh, and for other American viewers, the reason Kennedy looks so familiar but you can't quite place him is because he buried his natural accent so successfully on Battlestar Galactica.At any rate, I highly recommend this film and now look forward to seeing the others in the series. I can only marvel at whatever happened to Horatio Hornblower to turn him into such a lackluster Reed Richards. Perhaps a lifetime of attempting to spell "Ioan Gruffudd" has just worn him down.

Maedhros35 There is an iron law about some series' first episode: the hero enters the stage, green as grass, learns the ropes, makes some friends and an enemy; gets accepted and finally saves the day, applauded by (nearly) all of them - in the mean time defeating the enemy utterly. See Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for another example or many series.Unfortunately, despite the great costumes; the stunning ships, the good-looking battles and all, the story can be summed up as described above. Which is a pity, since many of the other episodes of this mini-series have a much better story. Still, given all the good points, it's watchable and gives you a small tasting of what is yet to come.

yaelbenisrael First of all, a note about the American titles for this mini-series: what's wrong with you people? Can't you leave a title alone? Or do you think your crowd is so dumb, they wouldn't understand the title that the makers gave it? Why did you have to change "The Even Chance" into "The Duel", for instance (and the other titles as well)? Translating a foreign title is one thing. Altering (and totally ruining) an existing title is something else.And now to the comment: "Hornblower" is one of the best-made series I have ever seen. It's clever, it's interesting, it's really wonderful in all aspects possible. And Ioan Gruffudd is not only good looking, he's a good actor- a skill that most Hollywood stars unfortunately lack. Right now I have only seen the first two episodes, but I'm definitely not going to miss the other two.