ClassyWas
Excellent, smart action film.
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Jerrie
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Wyatt
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
aceellaway2010
Fatally flawed by miscasting of Title Character. Ray Winstone, may be very good playing an Eastender drunk. But Henry Vlll for all his many flaws, was a well educated, well read good looking King. This henry comes across as a small time, crude, cockney thug. I imagine that anyone who would watch this , would do so because they have some knowledge of history. I despise Henry Vlll , he murdered wives, friends, anyone who got in his way, and he did so with the power of an absolute monarch. But this miscasting is so bad that it is offensive, and one wonders who chose Winstone to play the character, whoever it was they should suffer the same fate of many of Henry's victims.
Leofwine_draca
This BBC two-parter tells the story of Henry VIII and casts Ray Winstone in the titular role. Winstone, a much-mocked actor, seems to have a legion of detractors but I found him perfect in this part, playing a surprisingly emotional and unstable monarch.Given Henry's status as England's most famous king, the story is very familiar but that doesn't stop HENRY VIII from being a highly entertaining interpretation of the story. Of course, the pacing is super-fast seeing as six wives and all manner of political turmoil is compressed into just three hours, but it still has time to get all the important stuff in there.The budget seems higher than the Hollywood version of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (maybe because money wasn't blown on needless 'star' names) with close attention to detail both in set and costume. The cast is simply excellent - not just in the supporting male characters (Mark Strong and Danny Webb are great bad guys, Charles Dance and Sean Bean are brief and tragic figures, David Suchet makes Wolsey his own) but particularly in the actresses playing Henry's wives.Of course, Helena Bonham Carter bags the headlining role of Anne Boleyn, and very good she is too. But Emilia Fox (as Jane Seymour) and an impossibly young Emily Blunt (as Catherine Howard) also deserve plaudits for their acting skills. Is this better than the Keith Michell version? No, but I'd say it was equally as good and a fittingly violent interpretation for our times.
annog
I love Ray Winstone, but I did not like this TV series/movie. For starters, historical dramas do not create a good atmosphere when the actors have modern haircuts.The producers were not able to tell this very intense story without relying on heavy handed TV show type of pyrotechnics. It is obvious that they take the audience for fools.Ray's coarse accent is usually a blessing. But not here.In fact, almost none of the actors were commanding and compelling to watch.I could not finish it.
Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3)
The facts are XVIth Century but the style is clearly XXIst Century. It can be argued that everything in this miniseries really happened (except for a few fictional subplots) but it is unarguable that the end result is extremely vulgar, from the Cockney accent and body language of the king to the soap-opera techniques of the editing style. In this universe, a birth cannot happen without the camera projecting between the legs of the mother and blood spurting everywhere, courtesans cannot be disgraced without a Nazi style arrest followed by the cries of the tortured. History is a series of excuses for showing body fluids and not mentioning any important or relevant social issues other than sex and violence. It is entertainment for the readers of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids (Mr. Murdoch also owns Granada Television). It follows in the euro-trash tradition of revisionist history as spectacular blood-sport of such recent period films as "Elizabeth", "Le Roi Danse", "Vatel", "La Reine Margot", "L'Affaire du Collier", etc., etc., etc. Ad nauseam... It also made possible a piece of egregious dung like "Gunpowder, Treason & Plot" (2004).
