Captain Corelli's Mandolin
DVD Review:

This movie is based on a tremendously popular British novel by Louis De Bernieres, I am not a huge fan of book to movie translations, but with a
director on board who is the same man to direct 'Shakespeare In Love' surely the man knows how to tell an old-fashioned British tale.

The movie is based on the Greek island of Cephalonia. An island that is lost in time and has failed to realise what is going on around them, let
alone realise that war is about to be raged upon them. Here lives Greek beauty Pelagia (Penelope Cruz) and her father Dr. Iannis (John Hurt). Pelagia is betrothed to marry Mandras, who has gone off to fight the axis forces in Europe, and increasingly becomes worried about the safety of her island.

Enter, Captain Antonio Corelli (Nicolas Cage) and his motley crue of fighters. The film plays on the urban myth that the Italians could not fight, by portraying them as a weak and powerless army against the Greek and indeed the Germans. As is custom, an officer chooses to board with a family
of the occupied nation, and Corelli elects to board with Pelagia and Dr. Iannis. Pelagia at first despises Corelli, but as could be slightly predicted, they fall in love. Just to find that Mandras is still alive, along with Mussolini surrendering, and as such German forces moving in not only on the Greek but on the Italians too.

Unfortunatly there is never the real on-screen chemistry between Cage and Cruz and this fails to inspire one about the central couple to the film.
Although it has to be said that both put it greater performances in their own scenes. Many said this book was unfilmable, and as such it had alot of
the depth taken out of it when converted to an on-screen epic. It is the skills of Director John Madden and cinematographer John Toll that surely save this film from a dire review. This film triumphs Style over Content and does it well. This turns what would otherwise have been an average film into something quite enjoyable. John Hurt and Christian Bale also put in very good performances in the supporting roles, but with the film heavily relying on the Corelli and Pelagia characters this counted for little. An enjoyable film worth watching, but not worth going wild for.

Audio & Visual:
The dolby 5.1 surround sound is a given, whist it comes out in anamorphic widescreen forman 2:35:1, the picture and sound quality are both superb and cannot be faulted. Toll's cinematography is incredible.

Extras:
- Feature Commentary with the Director
This is a good extra, quite good in length, but with gaps in places. However, this is due to the fact that Madden was not the original director to this film, Roger Mitchell was on board to direct but had a heart attack.
- Music Video from Russell Watson
- Production notes
- Cast and Filmakers.
The other 3 are generally run of the mill extras found on almost any DVD that has space to fit them, nothing outstanding here.

Overall:
3/5 - Great style which makes this fairly average film stand out from the crowd and make it throughly enjoyable.

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