Genres

Visitors Review

intelearts 2012-05-21 00:31:55

What a waste of Production Values

This looks wonderful - great costuming and locations - reallyimpressive.But all horribly let down by terrible acting, script, and above all,direction.The filming looks so "made for TV" both in angles, lighting, but aboveall in tones: just some filters, and better use of film would have madea huge difference.Historically accurate, this could have been really great: it reallylooks expensive and expansive; but it is living proof that nothing cancover poor acting.Left me neither wanting more, or expecting less, I cannot recommendthis for schools, or homes -- it just is so uninspiring -- and that isunforgivable given the material and the locations.

2012-05-20 12:59:05

Marco Polo

I enjoyed the picture a lot. Great views, handsome and talented actors. Still I prefer the style where strong scenes are suggested, leaving some of the action to the imagination.

2012-05-10 16:15:14

Colorful Pageantry

This review is from: Marco Polo (DVD) I enjoyed the colorful pageantry of this mini-series. Keeping in mind this is Hollywood and not a documentary, this romanticized version of Marco Polo's travels was most entertaining. Ian Somerhalder is well cast as the ever inquisitive adventurer as are the other members of the international cast. With one exception, Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan? Though a fine actor in his own right, Mr. Dennehy has no business portraying the Mongol ruler. Not to mention the scores of Asians offended by such casting. However, the sets were most glamorous making this production a worthwhile adventure.

2012-05-10 10:43:35

Decidedly Average

I rented this movie as I love history. I had not heard of this made forTV movie and so based on past experience (ie when movies have noreviews or decent advertising campaigns or they go straight to DVD)Idid not hold out much hope for it.Unfortunately I was proved right. Whilst I give full marks to thewonderful settings and locations which were extremely good the actingwas poor with no apparent eye to detail. It seemed the movie was rushedand what started out as a potentially good premise soon had mecringing. I battled through because I wanted to know more about theadventures of Polo. I have since looked him up on Wikipedia sosomething positive came out of it :) The person responsible for castingDennehy as Khan needs to be fired.I thought Khan was from Mongolia andwas oriental? It was laughable. Also ethnic Chinese who speak fluentEnglish with an American accent just doesn't cut it. This doesn't makesense when other Chinese characters in the movie spoke speakMandarine/Cantonese with no sub titles.I am assuming their were liberal interpretations of the truth as tohistorical accuracy but then most supposedly true stories do this aswell so I don't have any issues there.Had so much potential but sadly let down. I guess the production ranout of money.

2012-05-02 01:49:39

Who pay for this?

I cant believe that someone actualy pay to produce sush a bad awful screenplay. That movie is shallow, empty, quickly made, no good caracters, nothing! You dont get the feeling that traveling from Venice to China at that time required almost 2years of traveling, dangers, Babel-like problems in communications and, as somethign that Hollywood always do, using the already old cliche' of so-called emotional scenes. This screenplay and the actors, the music (except for good costumes and production design) everything is badly made and it make this movie even painful to watch. Is truly bad made and i guess for children that movies can be interesting, but avoid that. This movies is made by a kid-amateur to me. Truly empty movie with content. Wasted money. But I suggest you to take a look first of 1982's Polo tv series with Ken Marshall. its 5 hours long. excellent series, showing how difficoult was to travel in silk road route and the first vision of china that marco has and the series is brilliant made considering that traveling and filming in communist China in early 80's wasnt easy task.

2012-05-01 16:47:48

Good movie

This review is from: Marco Polo (DVD) We missed the second half of Marco Polo on TV so I was excited when I found it at Amazon. We don't have many DVD's but this is a part of history so we've watched it twice so far. So much to learn of a mysterious culture. I would recomend it to any history buff.

ilovebees3 2012-04-30 10:27:56

Disjointed Soap Opera

I gave a 2 (instead of 1 - awful)because of the attentive grandcostuming, scenic beauty, and the breathtaking Asian girl that is thelove interest of Marco.But in this day and age it is outrageous that a Caucasian plays theMongol king. Plus that incongruity continues to break the story flowthru out the movie. I was hoping to see a story that included moreabout the travels of Marco, the technological and cultural discoveriesof the lands he visited. Instead, we get about 5 minutes of that,gunpowder its main obsession. The rest of the movie seems to befabricated love triangles, invented King and Marco interactions,ridiculous "uprisings" with a smattering of poorly choreographed kungfu fights, internal convoluted political machinations with a sprinklingof "wise" Chinese sayings, and discussions of "freedom" that areextremely unlikely to have occurred. Save your money, save your time donot watch this movie unless you want to see a long boring soap opera.

2012-04-29 23:06:48

The mini series was excellent

This mini series is very close to the one in the early 80's that was the best ever made. I would definitely recommend this to lovers of history.

artwk 2012-04-28 07:30:45

A missed opportunity

Given the fact that the makers had access to plenty of money, goodcostuming, and even to the locations (or convincing computer-generatedsubstitutes), this could have been a very good historical movie.Alas,the derogatory comments on this site regarding script, acting, andcasting are perfectly valid. Who on earth cast Brian Dennehy as anoriental? There are established oriental actors who look the part —John Lone would be an obvious choice.The real Marco Polo could speak Italian and French, and on his way tomeet Kublai Khan may well have learned Turki, the language Kublaisometimes used in his written communications. But the ridiculous scenewhere they meet bears not the slightest resemblance to Marco Polo'sreal-life account, in which the great ruler was the soul of courtesy.Dennehy's grumpiness was pure fiction, like so much else in thistedious production.The question that begs to be asked is: if one wants to make ahistorical epic, why present bad fiction instead of interesting fact?

nabilahjean 2012-04-27 16:12:23

Did the scriptwriter even read the book?

The Travels of Marco Polo is a vast and informative account of afascinating journey. The book was, anyway. The movie was a pretty film,but I think the only thing it had in common with the original accountis some of the character's names and China itself. It was like a PCmorality play rather than a portrayal of the events in the book. Allthe fascinating things Polo did and saw and all we got is that sillymovie? I am not going to complain about the acting. There was no soul in thescript. I thought the young man who played Marco Polo was as good a fitas I would have expected, physically. I don't know what they werethinking of with Dennehy. He is a fine actor, but I don't think theydid justice to the Chinese people by having an Irishman play one ofChina's major historical figures.

f_rocha 2012-04-26 01:55:55

Yes, cheesy and predictable

It obviously isn't a historical movie, nor a movie that should be takenas "educational" material either. It's just a plain fiction on MarcoPolo, a very free adaptation of his travels, the four points are forlocations and sightings. Yes, the acting is really bad, some charactersera annoyingly out of character, (sorry for the repetition). Though, Ithink the costume and production is very good, alas, the script is not.Even though, if you want to see a cheesy history of a guy that can makehis way into a society by accepting the system in a supposedly "rebel"way, definitely, you'd like to see this one, it's message is simple"obedience pays".

2012-04-25 23:12:16

Marco Who ?

"realistic" ? "true story" ? oh come oooooon......Marco Polo's journey, together with his father and brother(and not alone) was a business venture, he didn't set out to convert the Khan(a man his father knew since he'd been there before..), neither did it have anything to do with priests or monks on a journey to convert the "idolators" ...this film his about as accurate as Gary Cooper's in the 1930's....history is so marvellous yet americans seem to believe it is far too complicated for anyone of us to comprehend, so they simplify it into cliché's(many of them purveyed by movies in the first place)ask a pretty boy to prance through asia and let an irishman play Kublai Khan....on second thought : I prefer the Gary Cooper film, at least thàt one wasn't pretentious in his supposed "truthfullness"....

pwhite60-1 2012-04-24 15:49:14

Dennehy is a Mongol - yeah right!

What hope is there when even the films buyer/screener doesn't know theplot as the Plot Summary indicates - "Marco Polo is abandoned in themountains when the priests, doubting the very existence of China, turnback. Polo eventually pushes bravely forth alone toward the fabledcount - Written by Hallmark Channel". It seems they didn't even botherto watch the first 10-15 minutes to know that his father and unclestill accompanied him after the two priests (possibly the worst actorsin the whole show) turned back.Like others I agree the script, acting and casting was pretty atrociousfor the European and 'name stars' and were mismatched to the possiblygreat movie that could have been if the production locations andcostuming were better matched. I thought the era of trying to pass offEuropeans (Dennehy) as Orientals had ceased and it was obvious theAsian actors were far better than the so called stars. At least back inthe 50's and 60's all the actors and extras looked fake when playingforeigners of a different race. It is even more glaring when they areused alongside far better actors of genuine racial type.However it did improve a lot after the first 30 minutes which hadnearly made me switch it off.

darrell9 2012-04-24 05:56:11

Out of 1.5+ Billion Chinese in the World Kublai Khan is portrayed

by Brian Dennehy? You've got to be kidding me... Worst casting than theactor that played Charlie Chan... Don't get me wrong, I think Brian isa great actor, just the wrong guy for this movie.As others have said, beautiful locations, costuming, good camerawork... The casting was about the worst ever. Is then no Chinese oreven an Asian actor that could not have been cast for Khan?BD Wong was okay for his part.I wished they'd show more of the culture, the food, the dance, musicthe art. It would be a lot cheaper to produce than big war scenes.Marco's lady is beguiling and more of a romance developed wouldcertainly have been an improvement to the movie as well.As a Chinese American I was hoping to see more historically interestingfacts, weaponry, food, scenery, art and culture. Oh well...Such as shameful waste...

2012-04-23 01:21:07

Marco Polo

This review is from: Marco Polo (DVD) Understanding that this person, Marco Polo, may never have seen China as he said he did, I fully enjoyed this story. It was very believable as well as interesting.

youAreCrazyDude 2012-04-22 11:55:20

Wonderful movie about people: people are same today as they were at Polo's time!

Wonderful movie about people: people are same today as they were atPolo's time! Some people left comments about "bad acting". I did notsee any of "bad acting". On the contrary, I think the acting was verygood. Plots, betrayals, love, hatred, and other human situations thatalso happen in today's everyday life. What a great teaching sample tolearn from! The movie teaches about how people behave today - just likethey behaved at Polo's time. Most wonderful movie I have ever seen. Ipresume, the special effect fans and fans of computerized 3D effectsleft bad comments because, ... well ... the movie is true to itspurpose: description of real human behavior and life. I lived in formerUSSR, Austria and Italy. Now I live in Portland, Oregon, USA. I feelthe same way that Marco Polo feels. I saw the same things that MarcoPolo saw (not in China though). Movie is very true to its purpose. Ibow to the creators of the movie.

Display Name 2012-04-22 03:55:30

Horrible

Made the mistake of watching this. Really, really bad. Who would ever think of having an overweight Irish-American guy play Kublai Khan?

diddy-11 2012-04-21 13:43:51

Waste of time

Don't you just love the fact that everybody, and I mean everybodyspeaks English in this movie. Regardless if they're Italian merchants,afghan doctors, poor Mongol peasants, Mongol nobles or even Persianwarriors. At first the actors at least speak with an accent. Butfurther into the movie the actors forget to add the accent. I thoughtthat the first problem an Italian guy would have when he arrives in13th century China is to communicate, but not in this movie. The makersof the movie doesn't even pretend that there are difficulties incommunicating, which is common in other movies, even if they both speakEnglish.To add to the credibility of this movie the roll of Kublai Khan isplayed by Brian Dennehy. Don't get me wrong, I like Brian Dennehy as anactor. But he hardly looks like a Khan of the Mongol Empire. The makersof the movie, again, doesn't seem to care. At least his character getsold. Which is not something you could say about Marco Polo, played byIan Somerhalder. The only difference in his appearance is when he's inthe prison in Genoa. And the difference? You guessed it! They add morebeard to his face.Overall a very bad movie. It's not worth wasting your time on.

2012-04-20 11:35:09

Nice Visuals, But Overall Pretty Boring

This review is from: Marco Polo (DVD) There are several reviews that discuss the historical accuracy of this film, but my review of Hallmark's made for TV movie, Marco Polo is based mostly on its entertainment value.The sets and costumes were very nice, but the story was very slow paced and became tedious to watch. Some of the fighting scenes were good and it was interesting to see B.D. Wong ("Pedro") performing martial arts.Historically, Kublai Khan wished to meet with Marco Polo because he had never seen a European before. The casting of Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan was a poor decision. It's offensive enough seeing a Caucasian actor in an Asian role, but on top of that, his acting was painfully bad.I suppose seeing this movie might get some people interested in reading Marco Polo's book and learning more about that part of history. Probably more interesting than watching this made for TV movie.

2012-04-20 00:58:57

Two reviews

This review is from: Marco Polo (DVD) Two reviews come to mind for this one: 1) "Low budget, low energy, big yawn"; and, 2) "Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan." They tried, others have tried, no one's done justice to M. Polo since M. Polo first told his story. This one throws in some sex and B.D. Wong gets a martial arts airing. Two stars, one for each review.