THE EAGLE, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 54 min )

where:  CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when:  Monday, February 14th, 2011
show:  7:35 p.m.
costs:  $9.75 Ticket + $4.50 Pretzel Bites + $4.00 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke = $18.25
auditorium:  12
seat:  3rd row, 5th column

synopsis/overview:  Twenty years after  the disappearance of  the Roman Empire's 9th Legion somewhere in the uncharted territories of North Britain, a young commander, Marcus Flavius Aquila ( Channing Tatum ), and his British slave, Esca ( Jaime Bell ),  sets  out to solve the mystery of the lost legion which was commanded by his own father,  restore honor to his family name and retrieve the legion's unit standard, The Eagle.
  

noteworthy scenes:  1.) The boy is a bad omen; 2.) Supplies; 3.) Call to arms; 4.) Night-time raid; 5.) Captured men; 6.) Battle; 7.) Uncle ( Donald Sutherland ); 8.) Good news and bad news; 9.) Gladiatorial combat; 10.) "My father's dagger is my bond"; 11.) Surgery; 12.) News about the Eagle; 13.) "He gave me his word"; 14.) Hadrian's Wall; 15.)  Campfire talk; 16.) Thousands of  glens; 17.) "Next time, don't hesitate"; 18.) Chin strap scar; 19.) Killing ground; 20.) "You weren't here, you don't know what it was like"; 21.) The painted people; 22.) "My slave"; 23.)  Flirts; 24.) Initiation ceremony; 25.) The Eagle; 26.) "Have you seen them run"; 27.) "You're wounded.  Why didn't you say"; 28.) Rat; 29.) Horse; 30.) River; 31.) Remnant; 32.) "Give the order, sir"; 33.) The son; 34.) The fight; 35.)  Funeral  pyre; 36.) "For my father"; and 37.) "He knows more about honor and freedom than you ever will."

audience reaction:  The audience liked it.

recommendation:  It was okay.  Go see this if you're into Action/Adventure films.

spoiler alert!  What ... a Roman fortification without bows and arrows--wtf?  Why weren't the Romans wearing greaves ( shin armor )?  Why did the  Romans run away from the chariots when they had all those spears  handy?  They could have speared the horses and stopped them in their tracks that way.  Why didn't the surgeon give Marcus a leather strap to bite on?  While they were wading in the river, at one point, Marcus said, "Christ, I can't!"  ( It sure sounded like this was what he said.  'Funny thing is Christianity didn't get adopted by Rome  as its State Religion until  170 + years after the time period for this movie had transpired. Ha, ha, ha. )  How were they able to chase speedily after Marcus with a boy in tow?  Why didn't the dogs get in on the fight?

fyi:  I think that last year's THE CENTURION is a better, more gritty and brutal depiction of  the 9th Legion.  Unfortunately, it was on a limited run.  Luckily for me, someone uploaded it to movie2k.com and I was then able to watch it.

Also, there was a 2007 movie starring Colin Firth and Aishwarya Rai ( with plenty of bows and arrows ) about the 9th Legion ( ? ), THE LAST LEGION.  This movie somehow purports to show the origin of the King Arthur legend.

I appreciated learning of Hadrian's Wall.

word of advice:  Be an honorable person.

tidbits:  I don't think I was nominated at all!  I'll give it one last shot next year.  If nothing comes of it, I'll move on to something else because this movie-blog hobby of mine is taking-up too much of my time.  The shortest time that I've ever spent on a blog was 30 minutes.  But, on average, a blog can take me anywhere from four to six hours to do.  And some of them had even used-up 10 to 12 hours of my precious time because of the amount of research that I had to do for a particular piece.  So, if I don't get nominated at all next year then--that's it--my blogs will become subsequently infrequent because I have actually much better things to do with my precious time.