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Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:9
Rotten:26
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: This sequel is full of lavish costumes and elaborate sets, but lacks the heart and creativity of the original Elizabeth
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $16,264,475
Synopsis: Reprising the roles they originated in seven-time Academy Award®-nominated Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush return for a gripping historical thriller laced with treachery and... Reprising the roles they originated in seven-time Academy Award®-nominated Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush return for a gripping historical thriller laced with treachery and romance--The Golden Age. Joining them in the epic is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, a dashing seafarer and newfound temptation for Elizabeth. Elizabeth: The Golden Age finds Queen Elizabeth I (Oscar®-winner Cate Blanchett) facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II (Jordi Molla)--with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada--determined to restore England to Catholicism. Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for Raleigh. But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Unable and unwilling to pursue her love, Elizabeth encourages her favorite lady-in-waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish), to befriend Raleigh to keep him near. But this strategy forces Elizabeth to observe their growing intimacy. As she charts her course abroad, her trusted advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham (Academy Award® winner Geoffrey Rush), continues his masterful puppetry of Elizabeth's court at home--and her campaign to solidify absolute power. Through an intricate spy network, Walsingham uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne. But as he unmasks traitors that may include Elizabeth's own cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), he unknowingly sets England up for destruction. Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of an era...the story of one woman's crusade to control love, crush enemies and secure her position as a beloved icon of the western world. --© Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Rhys Ifans
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Rhys Ifans, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Jordi Molla
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Screenwriter: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jonathan Cavendish
Composer: Craig Armstrong, A.R. Rahman
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
It may have been a gamble for director Shekhar Kapur to pick up the threads of his acclaimed film Elizabeth from nine years earlier but the result is overtly satisfying
Where Kapur's first Elizabeth was cool, cerebral, fascinatingly concerned with complex plotting, the new movie is pitched at the level of a Jean Plaidy romantic novel.
Kapur’s film is visually arresting, each frame a work of art in miniature. But there is something rather breathless about the storytelling.
Over-indulgent and melodramatic, as is the nature of artistic mythmaking, The Golden Age will beguile and repel in equal measure. The performances are supreme, although some viewers may struggle to reconcile the director’s epic intentions.
I can almost recommend this film as a great-looking, bombastic guilty pleasure. But the soundtrack is unbearable, the soap opera love triangle -- laughable.
The movie looks beautiful, enhanced by intriguing camerawork and sumptuous production design. But the music is overbearing, perhaps to compensate for the pedestrian script and dull history lesson.
When you see Cate Blanchett in one fantastical gown after another, you understand why Elizabeth's reign was golden.
There are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, that we lose sight of the humans behind the dazzle of the production.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a kitsch extravaganza aquiver with trembling bosoms, booming guns and wild energy.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age gives new meaning to "costume drama" in that it is a drama primarily about costumes. But the drama is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple.
We are left choking in the billows and folds of Queen Elizabeth I's fabulous finery without a single insight into the woman among them, let alone the most celebrated period in English history.
Overall, pic takes a small-minded view of history and, in its rush to proceed from one tumultuous event to the next, lacks any sense of occasion relative to the significant pageant it attempts to depict.
Latest News for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
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