Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

hugobolso-1 Tirant le Blanc was the popular "novel" of Joanot Martorell (1413- 1468), started a couple of years after Constantinople downfall in 1460, and published after his death in 1490. Martorell was on the service of the Kingdom of Aragon, and he traveled around England, Naples and Portugal.- The novel is on a parallel world, where Constantinople still Christian, and is vaguely based on the life of Roger de Flor (1267-1305)a German gentleman of obscures origins, at the service of the Aragon Crown and Catalonian Company, that stopped Muslim advance over Constantinople for 150 years.-The novel is satirical and influence later the much more famous Don Quixote de la Mancha.-Concerns more about the sexual advances of Tirant and his friends over Byzantium Empire High noble ladies, specially Princess Carmasina, the Emperor's daughter and object of affection of Tirant.After the death of the male princes, the Constantinople Emperor (Giancarlo Giannini) accept foreign warriors (Tirant and his friends) for the defense of the Byzantium Empire. He also receives the marriage proposal of the Great Turk, of marrying the sultan with the emperor's only daughter Carmesina (Esther Nubiola).But the Empire is in decadence ruled by anachronism laws and by two ladies the Placid Widow (a fantastic Victoria Abril) who supports Carmesina marriage with the Turk and Pleasure (Leonor Watling in her finest role) that support instead Carmesina with Tirant marriage.Poor and virtuoso Princess Carmesina suffer the intrigue of pleasure and guilty of these two ladies. But Tirant isn't as sex god, and failed in every sex assault, suffering more injuries in love than in battle, unlike his friends Diafebus (Charlie Cox) with lady Estefania (a wonderful Ingrid Rubio) and the even younger Hipolito (Sid Mitchell) with the Empress herself (a still sexy Jane Asher).-So the story centers more in bedtime stories than in battles. Aranda shows again a lot of sensual flesh, and sumptuous dresses, the movie is funny and have sensual and erotic's scenes, while the ladies are great like most of the Aranda's film but unfortunately failed miserably in the battles and specially in the leading man the totally unknown Casper Zafer. Gianinni is also underused-The movie itself was a big flop in Spain. The money came from a co-fund with England. Because of that half of the cast is English and the other Spanish.Should be a better and more successful if the movie had at least Viggo Mortenssen in the leading role. Or at least a more charismatic and more household English actor. Even Charlie Cox, could be a more interesting Tirant

Andres Salama An entertaining film adaptation of a classic Catalan novel written in 1490, by veteran filmmaker Vicente Aranda (who was 80 when he directed this). In the 15th century, a Catalan knight arrives in Constantinople to help the Byzantine emperor fend off a Turkish invasion. Meanwhile, he is starting receiving the advances of various women of the court, but he himself has fallen for Carmesina, the beautiful daughter of the emperor (in real history, of course, Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453, but neither the novel nor the film follows history very closely).Delightful and erotic, this medieval bedroom farce is helped by the various beautiful actresses around, who are always ready to show themselves in different states of undress, though always with taste, including the beautiful Esther Nubiola as Carmesina, but also Ingrid Rubio and Leonor Watling as two maidens, and even two veterans as Victoria Abril and Jane Asher. In the title role of Tirant, however, Caspar Zafer delivers a poor, almost expressionless, performance.

Turtle Heart This film is unwatchable. I tried twice. I love stories like this, so was willing to give it a look. The costumes are spectacular. The acting is truly horrible across the board. It begins with the hero we see, who when he finally speaks has the squeaky high pitched voice of an obnoxious child. This is followed by a meeting with the king, and he is dressed to the nines. Immaculate and awesome king clothes. The actor stuffed inside of them must have been a relative of the director or an investor. His acting is that of one who has no idea, no idea at all. Given the spectacular sets and costumes, somebody had some money. Sometimes a film is just to bad to coherently review. The work that went into the sets and costumes makes the poor direction and acting confusing. You keep wanting to give it a chance because it looks delicious. I couldn't.

carlospartagas I hadn't read the book prior to seeing the movie, so I can't compare them. Honestly, I expected it to be deadly bad. And I was really surprised. The story is beautiful, filled with both humor and drama. It's not the "Troya" kind of film, the battle scenes are somehow poor (maybe due to a bad production?) yet Aranda gives them a personal touch. Aranda surprises again with his ability to investigate love, passion and human feelings. I loved the fact that Tirant is not the typical hero. Shame that the actor is sometimes empty...specially in comparison to the women of the film. Sure that Esther Nubiola is a discovery, we can read everything from her eyes and she's the perfect image for sensuality. Leonor Watling and Ingrid Rubio bring brightness to the movie, as well as Victoria Abril,able to catch the eye of the camera even from the back. A special congratulations to Giancarlo Gianini, this guy is always perfect whatever he does. Amazing dresses,by Ivonne Blake and beautiful music, with those breathtaking child chorus. The only shame, that Vicente Aranda didn't have the right producers and sometimes you can feel it through the movie.