| Original Score: C | Feb 18, 2012

The Eagle appeals to my older self while retaining what made my childhood reading so stirring.

| Mar 28, 2011

As culture clashes go, this one should be filed under rout.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 25, 2011

A decent, forthright, if finally uninspired sword'n'sandal drama, based on Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 children's novel The Eagle of the Ninth.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 24, 2011

The hero of the whole production is cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 24, 2011

Has all the ingredients of a terrific adventure thriller: an epic quest narrative, strong characters, the tangled interplay of pride, loyalty and masculinity.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 24, 2011

A boring Roman Top Gun.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2011

Best of all is Anthony Dod Mantle's breathtaking photography: the Scottish Highlands have never looked so eerily, threateningly beautiful.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2011

SINCE the early days of cinema, great actors have found immortality by playing heroes of the Roman Empire. Charlton Heston, Richard Burton...and now the dormouse-eyed, muscly fella from a couple of dance films and that cack GI Joe thing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 20, 2011

Good fight scenes, but a confusion of plot, culture and accents make this a lesser example of the sword 'n' sandal epic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 14, 2011

The story sags in the middle, as our wanderers traipse through the highlands-not a happy environment for Tatum, who, before his journey even begins, looks all at sea in this distant age.

| Feb 22, 2011

Wild-eyed, long-haired Brits leap atop the Romans' shields as the soldiers blindly hack away, the bodies so close that you can barely tell the victor from the vanquished. The battles in the fog and rain have a hallucinatory power.

| Feb 14, 2011

However you slice it, The Eagle is hokum, but modern-day Scots may get a kick out of the film's depiction of their ancestors as mud-caked hellions. Modern-day Romans will have to settle for less.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 12, 2011

The latest sandals-and-swords outing, "The Eagle" has landed . . . with a thud.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 11, 2011

Probably the only Western set in northern Scotland, and that must count for something.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 11, 2011

There's a predictable arc, as the two enemies have to overcome their mutual mistrust to survive.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 11, 2011

It's hard to go along for the ride when the characters act more like statuary than people.

| Feb 11, 2011

A long slog through ancient muck, so-so sword fights and dumb luck.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 11, 2011

Alas, from its scruffy period melodrama to its repetitious battles and endless cross-country shots, this film is all grandiosity with no real heft.

| Original Score: C- | Feb 11, 2011

Given that the characterizations and historical details can often be as sketchy as the film's soft-focus backgrounds and moral compass, The Eagle tepidly takes flight but fails to soar.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 11, 2011