| Spartan | | Cast : | Derek Luke, Val Kilmer | | Director : | David Mamet | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 12, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | February 08, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Very mixed review | Content
 | The story is interesting (if a bit implausible). The action is good. This is like a James Bond movie for adults (rather than teenagers). Orinally, I loved this movie and actually saw it three times in the theater (don't ask me why). I now have it on DVD, and I have one "issue" with it. It is WAY overwritten. Noone talks that way. And the actors basically proclaim their lines, like they are doing theater, instead of the lines naturally coming, out of the character and the situation. It is like you put someone at point X and he declames his lines. I couldn't believe how bad that is. Val Kilmer could have had his lines come from within, rather than proclaiming them in such a wooden way. I still would recommend this, but it is just odd, the way the dialog comes off in this movie. Still, good movie with a good plot and lots of interesting turns and twists. It just seemed way overengineered to me. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | Overlooked, Unappreciated, Underrated. | Content
| What happened here? We have an outstanding script with a fine cast headed by Val Kilmer in an exciting, David Mamet thriller. In fact, particulary for the first 45 minutes, this is about as good as film making gets. Ed O'Neill, on screen less than half your popcorn bag, gives a top shelf performance. Derek Luke and Tia Texada provide strong support and William H Macy is incapable of giving a bad performance. This might be one those films that gets better appreciated, more highly rated and not overlooked as time goes by. Let's hope so! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 27, 2005 | | Summary | Bad conspiracy film | Content
| I am generally against conspiracy films, and this one is up there with the worst. If you have ever had any professional contact with the US government, you know that there are no mass conspiracies, secret agents assassinating people, and cover-ups for politicians children. This film is supposed to be about the President's daughter getting kidnapped by an international prostitution ring, and then the government covering up the kidnapping to save the President's reputation.
First, a government civil servant (military or law enforcement) would never violate the law by murdering people to save a politician's reputation. Civil servants see politicians come and go - they have their jobs no matter what. History has demonstrated that civil servants rat out politicians rather than protect them (former Clinton Secret Service agent memoires, for example); or any number of "confidential sources" leaks to the press.
The ending did not make any sense either. I won't ruin it, but how they went from one cover-up to another was mystifying.
I would like to think it is good to see Val Kilmer, but in this case it was a poor return. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 01, 2005 | | Summary | The most thrilling part was the credits because that meant...... | Content
| this movie was over.
I found this movie to be awful. The characters funtions were hard to follow, the scenario was completely unbelievable, the acting was stilted, and the writing was very poor. Honestly the best part of the movie was the credits because that meant the movie was over. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 24, 2005 | | Summary | It was okay, nothing spectacular given modern day movies.... | Content
| If this movie were watched out on a desert island by someone that had not seen a thriller since, oh, 1991, it would probably get 4 stars. But the fact that the market is so saturated with films of this noire anymore, it kind of falls back into the bottom of the pile. Now I'm not saying it's terrible, I'm just saying when you have movies like Collateral, Heat, The Bone Collector, Man on Fire etc. etc. that are out there on the rack for renting, this one would not be my first suggestion for you to pick up. Kilmer does his best but does not really give his character (it's the script writers fault more than Kilmers) any depth or strength. He is one of my favorite actors but is better off in other roles.
I am glad othes found the movie to their liking. It's just my opinion, but the movie could have been better. Well that's it, below is a synopsis of the movie "spartan".
David Mamet writes and directs the political thriller Spartan. Respected Secret Service agent Robert Scott (Val Kilmer) is assigned to the kidnapping case of Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), the missing daughter of a high-ranking political figure. Scott is teamed up with rookie Curtis (Derek Luke).
Aided by the FBI and the CIA, the team discovers a human trafficking operation that may lead to Laura's kidnappers. Meanwhile, political operative Stoddard (William H. Macy) refuses to cooperate with the rescue mission. Scott and Curtis are forced to quit the investigation when the media reports Laura's death. Believing her to be alive, Curtis is motivated to start up a dangerous unofficial investigation of his own.
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