Sharpe's Peril (2008)

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Sean Bean returns as the ever intrepid Richard Sharpe in this latest reworking of Bernard Cornwell's earlier books. Shot on 35mm this film, and the previous film from a few years earlier, "Peril" has z different look and feel to it, but regardless we get to see Sharpe's continued exploits and share in his adventures. The production values are higher than ever. The Indian productions seem to have been taken up a notch or two from the films shot in the 90s. Sun drenched scenery, both plush and arid, they're a far cry from the relatively frigid realms of the winter locations in Spain and Portugal. For whatever reason the direction feels a little different as well, but ironically enough seems to hearken back to the feeling that the earlier Sharpe films gave the audience. There's a sense of adventure, intrigue and the exotic, as well as the romantic.Sharpe is presented with some internal challenges as well as a plethora of external ones. Teresa, though long gone since the fourth film, is still very much alive in Sharpe's memory. To find out why, you have to see the film.If I had one critique it's that Sen Bean, being a smoker, has aged prematurely. Oh sure he's old, but his smoking habit doesn't help sell him as the dashing hero type. He looks ragged, which, ironically enough, actually helps accentuate the character. Still, it would behoove him to toss the cigarettes and add some years to his life.Still, it's a solid installment. A bit longer than usual, and it does take liberties with some of the characters, but it's a decent watch.Give it a whirl and enjoy.

My wife and me are big fans of the series so tuned in this latest 2 parter with anticipation. Unfortunately as the story began to unfold we we felt that that we had been here before. By the end we felt disappointed with the outcome. Although the scenery was magnificent, the story itself just dragged and it was just too clichéd. You just knew what was going to come next...sorry but it's time to draw a close on the TV adventures of Richard Sharpe. I just wish Captain Fredrickson and the chosen men could have magically appeared to give us a break from the Sharpe and Harper show!

Oh dear, what a let down this was. The two redeeming features were the scenery (courtesy of the Indian Tourist Board)and some apparently authentic dialogue. On British TV the programme was shown in two parts, the first of which dragged, though there was some reasonable action in the second. I suspect that the influence of Sharpe author Bernard Cornwell was confined to providing the characters, because the plot borrowed countless clichés from Westerns of the 1950s. There were several insults to one's intelligence.The most notable was Sharpe's supposedly inspirational speech to the soldiers and villagers as they awaited the final onslaught by the baddies. The references to Napoleon and Waterloo would have meant something to the few remaining British soldiers, but nothing at all to the Indian troops and villagers - even supposing they (the latter especially) understood English. Then there was Harper curiously being cured of kidney stones and Simmerson's remarkable recovery from delirium and his sudden warmth for Sharpe (and where did he get his smart general's uniform from, after the pursued soldiers and civilians had been carrying next to nothing after crossing the river). The portrait of Sharpe's daughter in the locket looked more like a colour photograph than a painting.Sean Bean was beginning to show his age, seemed to go through the motions with his acting and was not at all an inspiring leader.

They criticized this episode because Daragh O'Malley had got a bit fatter. And maybe Sean Bean had a few more lines on his face - well, how many wives has be tried to please - apparently without success!.But it's wonderful. Heroism, humanity, and fellow feeling are all there just as they are in the entire series. There's some closure for fellow aficionados; Hakeswill (in a sense) is laid to rest, and Simmerson ends the fool he always was.Bernard Cornwell is an excellent author, and Sean Bean / Daragh O'Malley and this entire cast has brought it all to wonderful viewing.Wanna be a soldier!