Cleopatra
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Movie Reviews of Cleopatra
Movie Review: Nice Scenery, Too Bad About The Cast
Summary: 2 Stars
The lush scenery and costuming used in this production makes it worthwhile to rent. The choice of Lenora Valera as Cleopatra, however, I had a real problem with. It was widely known that Cleopatra was not only Greek, but not particularly beautiful. It was her voice which mesmerized. I think HBO's Rome Series did a fantastic job in casting for Cleopatra. By casting Lenora Valera for the part, the directors chose to make an unrealistic "sexy" portrayal of an ancient story which doesn't need any "Sexing" up from Hollywood.Movie Review: She just cannot act.
Summary: 2 Stars
Hi,This movie is bad. Well, actually, as said before the sets and costumes are good, but Leonor Varela, who plays Cleopatra, quite simply CANNOT act...not even if her life depended on it. She might look nice but every time she said something I felt like "oh...not again"...instead of spending all that money on the sets, they should have gotten a better lead and thought a little more about the script. Billy Zane was good though...which earned it a second star.
Movie Review: A Sexist Portrayal of Cleopatra
Summary: 1 Stars
This is such a prime example of how history reduces the greatest female rulers to spoiled helpless children, nagging wives, or brazen whores. In this movie, she is portrayed as all of the above.
For those of you unaware, Cleopatra was a wise and regal ruler, a brilliant economist, an astute strategist, a clever risk-taker, a highly educated author, and the ultimate self-marketer. Nearly every book and movie skips over the eight languages she spoke, the social programs she enacted. They assume that her only achievement was to be born a great beauty and a base courtesan. In reality any sex appeal she had was not to be found in the face fate bestowed on her -- the rare images of her depict her as having a huge beaked nose, a sharp chin, and a thick neck. It was her personality, her wit, her brilliance in seduction, her skill with makeup, and her ability to create an aura around herself that made her such a lethal enchantress. Despite her gender, she used what few weapons society would allow her to save her country.
The Cleopatra in this movie was a stomping, petulant child, foolish and brash. Instead of a shrewd woman who used her brain to save her nation by driving a great conquerer to sensual submission, in this movie her brash folly is barely contained by Ceasar, who acts as her mentor.
We can say with a degree of legitimacy that Cleopatra was a parasite, that she was a sociopath, that she was a murderer.
But nobody who knows anything about Cleopatra would ever consent to portray her as an empty-headed bimbo unless they were blatantly, deliberately ignoring the facts in favor of a version that would be more palatable to a sex-obsessed patriarchal culture.
Even today, we just cannot abide a powerful woman (let alone an ugly one) and must belittle her achievements this way.
Movie Review: What year was this movie made?
Summary: 1 Stars
I do not own this movie - thank god! I saw it on YouTube...the hole thing on YouTube. At first I loved it and the second time I loved it...but then after watching it again and just watching random clips...wow. What year was this movie made? The special effects were sooooooo bad someone actually comment on the video on YouTube and said "the effects look like a cartoon lol" and the woman who plays Cleopatras sister is a very bad actress...shes trying hard YES but...thats whats wrong...she over acted the hole thing and when she is cought by Cleopatras army guys or whatever they were, she screams it was the funniest thing I ever saw. The woman who played Cleopatra is a...well 3* actress. She put in a little too much and they didnt put all the makeup and stunning things on her that they did in other Cleopatra movies...maybe in real life Cleopatra wasnt always like that, but when you get used too seeing Cleopatra made up into everything we hope she was and most likely was...its a little disapointing. Again she put too much into her performance that she just makes herself look like an idiot and there is a scene near the end - during the battle of octum (spelling??) that she attacks a roman and she makes big attacking scream, it is very sad. They also don't show you clearly how antony died. If you didnt know anything about Marc Antony and you were watching this movie you would think that he died in battle or something (he killed himself). Also when "Cleopatra" is dieing she makes this speech it makes you thing "yeah right". So all in all...save your money and just watch it on YouTube (type in Cleopatra 1999 part 1) and you should find it lol.Movie Review: Read the book instead
Summary: 1 Stars
20 minutes into this movie I was disgusted by the terrible acting and the complete disregard for the book on which is it supposedly based. The actress playing Cleopatra protrays her as petulent, spoiled and immature, whereas in the book one saw Cleopatra as highly astute, regal, and concerned first about her country and its people. In the movie she handed Egypt to Ceasar eagerly, whereas in the book she refused to surrender anything to Rome. Likewise, Dalton portrays Ceasar as a complete ****.
Perhaps if this were not based on Margaret George's Memiors of Cleopatra, I would be more kind in my review, but it pains me to think of the years of research wasted because of some second-rate film-maker's idea of good story-telling.
At 975 pages the book may be too meaty for most, but if you really want to learn about this queen, read the book instead.