Catherine the Great
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Movie Reviews of Catherine the Great
Movie Review: Very Poor Film - No Credit to Its Subject
Summary: 1 Stars
Catherine the Great is one of the most colossal and legendary figures of Russian and Western history. And this movie does her absolutely no favors, not to mention the gross historical liberties taken to push this disjointed aznd rotten "fairy tale" along.
True, the costuming and interior shots are lush and generally well done. But the acting and wooden script can be most charitably characterized as "horrible." Zeta-Jones turns in a wooden performance as a kind of Russian "barbie doll" that does her subject no credit, and the young actor playing Potemkin falls into the same trap. He is less intellectual powerhouse than moody and wishy-washy to the point of just being plain annoying. And John Rhys-Davies, in my opinion, rather just walked around looking embarassed. Further, the historical Catherine never met Pugachev, and was far less a bed-hopper than the script portrays, altough Zeta-Jones manages here and there to capture a glimmer of Catherine's powerful intellect as well as her sometime intellectual pretentiousness. And the main focus and contribution of Catherine's amazing life - her reformist zeal, legislative genius, but ultimate failure of Enlightenment vision - is barely touched on at all. All in all, it's a crashing, sophomoric bore. And with a subject that interesting, that's unforgiveable.
A very bad movie on too many levels to adequately detail here. Avoid.
Movie Review: A&E Has Cut this offering on DVD by at LEAST HALF
Summary: 1 Stars
I agree with another writer who was the only one who noticed that the A&E Production on DVD IS INDEED MISSING around HALF of the Mini Series that was shown on Sydney's Channel Nine a few years ago.
I am glad we still have the old version on Video and if anyone has that version (ie THE COMPLETE Mini Series) with NO great missing Chunks, I would be keen to buy it.
I liked Catherine Zeta Jones and most of the acting although I did notice some that was very obviously "pretend" fighting.
If I can get a refund from "overman" from whom I bought this DVD or from Amazon.com INCLUDING the horrible postage we have to pay to get things from USA to Australia OR EVEN A REPLACEMENT BEING THE FULL VERSION I would be happy to return the shortfalling A&E DVD.
Movie Review: Sadly, A&E seems to enjoy making history into soap operas
Summary: 1 Stars
Don't say I hate history, but many movies turn history into soap opera. The way they had Catherine kissing passionatly and really, history never mentions that. Peter was a jerk, but I never read that he and Catherine kissed passionatly; that was a waste of time. The movies talents were wasted. If they want to make a soap opera, they shouldn't do history but something else. All the actors act like they are from NPR. The only thing I have learned (for I stopped watching it half-way) is that the Ottoman turks attacked Russia. A&E made this movie for the money. If you want to learn the non-romantic story of Catherine, read about her instead of watching this trash.Movie Review: Don't waste your money or time
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is not worth purchasing or watching. It is NOTHING like the mini-series, "Young Catherine" starring Julia Ormond in 1991. I returned it.
It seems that the mini series is unavailable at this time in (true) DVD format. If it ever becomes available it is the production to watch concerning the life and times of "Catherine the Great".
Movie Review: THE WORST!
Summary: 1 Stars
I know she made this early on in her career, but given this woman's power today I am surprised she allows it to still circulate. This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Get the Jeanne Moreau edition, that one will satisfy you more than this piece of turd!