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Movie Review for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Movie Review for
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age | | |
| Also known as: | |
111 Reviews total.
Release date: 10/12/2007
Run length: Unknown.
Categories:
Drama
,
Biopic
,
Sequel
Summary:
Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Queen Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II -- 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 Sir Walter 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, 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, 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, he unknowingly sets England up for destruction.
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Kevin Carr
of 7M Pictures (7/0)
an overblown costumer drama that is desperately clutching at the Oscar statuett
By
Jurgen Fauth
of About.com (7/0)
The work of a director who is intoxicated with the power of cinema.
By
Philip Martin
of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
Taken in the proper spirit ... pleasant enough
By
Marjorie Baumgarten
of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
Despite good performances all around, particularly the ever-brilliant Blanchett, Elizabeth: The G...
By
Michael Sragow
of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
Nothing more than a splashy, eclectic pageant complete with barge rides, banquets, indoor forests...
By
Wesley Morris
of Boston Globe (7/0)
...surrenders to soapy camp.
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Fred Topel
of Can Magazine (7/0)
Elizabeth is the coolest British monarch ever. She's totally bad***.
By
Roger Ebert
of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
There are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, t...
By
Roger Ebert
of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
...weighed down by its splendor.
By
Peter Rainer
of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
A distinct letdown from the 1998 predecessor that helped make Blanchett a star.
By
Peter T. Chattaway
of Christianity Today (7/0)
The Golden Age recycles much of the same basic material without offering any real insight into th...
By
Jules Brenner
of Cinema Signals (7/0)
They wrote themselves into a corner from the git go by making the central relationship one that c...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Kim Voynar
of Cinematical (7/0)
The film is beautifully shot, filling the screen with brightly saturated hues that give it an alm...
By
Karina Montgomery
of Cinerina (7/0)
Elizabeth I: II: Liz Harder is an enjoyable sequel which does not this time require you to have d...
By
Cole Smithey
of ColeSmithey.com (7/0)
Here, the Golden Age is converted to pewter.
By
Jeffrey M. Anderson
of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
Every so often Kapur shoots from behind a huge stone column or pillar; most of these pillars exhi...
By
Edward Douglas
of ComingSoon.net (7/0)
Impeccably shot and acted, but essentially a great-looking cliche-filled period film that carries...
By
Chris Vognar
of Dallas Morning News (7/0)
The Golden Age feels like two movies: one a bodice-ripping romance, the other a study in statecra...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Steven D. Greydanus
of Decent Films Guide (7/0)
A lurid sort of Christopher Hitchens vision of history pervades Elizabeth: The Golden Age …...
By
Brian Orndorf
of DVDTALK.COM (7/0)
Golden Age rides off the rails, taking the legend of Elizabeth to the next level of mythology. Fr...
By
Dezhda Mountz
of E! Online (7/0)
...the filmmakers have become too comfortable with Elizabeth...
By
Dan Lybarger
of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
It's hard to enjoy all that naval carnage when the people on the ships are just as wooden as the ...
By
Peter Sobczynski
of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
It is such a botch that it is difficult to believe that any of those involved with its production...
By
Emanuel Levy
of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
Kitsch and hysteria masquerading as art and drama: Dominated by bravura, Oscar-caliber turn from...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
William Thomas
of Empire Magazine (7/0)
Over-indulgent and melodramatic, as is the nature of artistic mythmaking, The Golden Age will beg...
By
Lisa Schwarzbaum
of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
Too bad Kapur's new, glittering sequel shows up feeling prematurely old, square, and cautious.
By
Eric D. Snider
of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
Simply takes a chunk out of Elizabeth's life and says, 'Here's what happened during these years,'...
By
Nathaniel Rogers
of Film Experience (7/0)
as elaborate, silly and attention seeking as one of Elizabeth's feathery headdresses.
By
Walter Chaw
of Film Freak Central (6/1)
Just f******* retarded.
By
David Noh
of Film Journal International (7/0)
It's a full-scale star performance in every sense...and I wouldn't be surprised if, like Helen Mi...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Pete Vonder Haar
of Film Threat (7/0)
Kapur also demonstrates he has no knack for shooting fight scenes, meaning the boffo climax looks...
By
Sean O'Connell
of filmcritic.com (7/0)
...a noble and beautiful disappointment...
By
Karl French
of Financial Times (7/0)
For all the shortcomings of its clunky, stubbornly anachronistic dialogue, the first instalment o...
By
MaryAnn Johanson
of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
Torture! Intrigue! Sex! Treachery! Holy war! Cate Blanchett in royal drag! Clive Owen in pirate d...
By
Rob Vaux
of Flipside Movie Emporium (7/0)
A failure on most any appreciable level: as compelling drama, as a history lesson, as a showcase ...
By
Liam Lacey
of Globe and Mail (7/0)
Through the miracle of modern technology, the film achieves alchemy in reverse, turning historica...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Peter Bradshaw
of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
Where Kapur's first Elizabeth was cool, cerebral, fascinatingly concerned with complex plotting, ...
By
Kirk Honeycutt
of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
All in all, it's a grand package of hearty acting, design and action with the only caveat being t...
By
Kit Bowen
of Hollywood.com (7/0)
God save Cate Blanchett. Without her performance, this second history lesson on Elizabeth I's rei...
By
Stax
of IGN Movies (7/0)
If you like your history lessons loud and garish, bombastic and bloody, then Elizabeth: The Golde...
By
Anthony Quinn
of Independent (7/0)
See it anyway for Blanchett's soulful modulation between queenly command and womanly anguish.
By
Prairie Miller
of Long Island Press (7/0)
More about fashion statements than political statements during that period of colonialism, 'Golde...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Carina Chocano
of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
...the drama is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple.
By
Carina Chocano
of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age gives new meaning to "costume drama" in that it is a drama primarily ab...
By
Pete Hammond
of Maxim (7/0)
It will most likely be admired by those who actually already reached their OWN 'golden age'.
By
Geoff Berkshire
of Metromix.com (7/0)
Like a bad second season of a breakout TV show, the original was laudable but the sequel's simply...
By
Duane Dudek
of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
[Director] Kapur is like an American Idol contestant who mistakes a song for its high and low ext...
By
Colin Covert
of Minneapolis Star Tribune (7/0)
Bogus history can make a crackling good adventure yarn, and Kapur piles on the treachery and roma...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Mark Dujsik
of Movie Insider (7/0)
More pageant drama than historical speculation.
By
Elizabeth Weitzman
of New York Daily News (7/0)
From its extravagant costumes to its pompous score, The Golden Age is packed with distractions. B...
By
David Edelstein
of New York Magazine (7/0)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is an unholy mixture of the banal and the bombastic.
By
Lou Lumenick
of New York Post (7/0)
...quite lavish and entertaining...
By
Armond White
of New York Press (7/0)
A completely useless, over-enunciated film -- an instant antique.
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (7/0)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a kitsch extravaganza aquiver with trembling bosoms, booming guns an...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (7/0)
...The Golden Age has sweep and momentum and almost as many mood shifts and genre notes as th...
By
Prairie Miller
of NewsBlaze (6/1)
Cate Blanchett's workaholic Queen Liz too busy for boy toys, in this royal runway strut more abou...
By
Jan Stuart
of Newsday (7/0)
Silence would be a blessing to Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which substitutes symphonic din in plac...
By
Nick Davis
of Nick's Flick Picks (7/0)
Elizabeth: Full Throttle. Elizabeth: The Heretic. Elizabeth: Book of Shadows. Despite all the ...
By
Jeffrey Westhoff
of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (7/0)
Unreliable as history and misguided as a contemporary allegory, Golden Age finally fails because ...
By
Frank Swietek
of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
Stilted and juvenile, more Classics Illustrated than classic....the dialogue is pocked with banal...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Keith Phipps
of Onion AV Club (7/0)
The events beg for Shakespearean gravity, but the only tragedy here is that so little could be ma...
By
Roger Moore
of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
[Blanchett's] so perfect in the part that you almost don't mind the abrupt ending.
By
Mike Sage
of Peterborough This Week (7/0)
Period films, even sequels, are limited by budget, and Kapur does a marvellous job with the money...
By
Gary Thompson
of Philadelphia Daily News (7/0)
Blanchett [does] her level best to keep control of a movie going in 10 directions at once.
By
Carrie Rickey
of Philadelphia Inquirer (7/0)
Through it all, whether in muslin nightie, damask gown or silvery armor, Blanchett commands the s...
By
Sean Burns
of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
The filmmakers must've noticed what a hit that first film was among teenage girls, and thus for t...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Bill Gibron
of PopMatters (4/3)
Playing fast and loose with the facts, and generating little big picture meaning, Elizabeth: The ...
By
Timothy Knight
of Reel.com (7/0)
For a narrative that's positively overflowing with dramatic intrigue, Elizabeth: The Golden Age i...
By
Michelle Orange
of Reeler (7/0)
As insistent on its emotional grandiosity as it is completely meaningless.
By
Jeffrey Chen
of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
Reasonably entertaining show of flourishes, colors, strong emotions, some intrigue, and heightene...
By
James Berardinelli
of ReelViews (7/0)
With respect to costumes and set design, this is a sumptuous affair. The script is less even, as ...
By
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone (7/0)
Cate Blanchett can do anything, even play Bob Dylan, but she can't save this creaky sequel to her...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Stephanie Zacharek
of Salon.com (7/0)
The Golden Age is frustrating because Kapur does seem to have a taste for nutball pageantry -- he...
By
Sean Means
of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
Nobody has [Blanchett's] back this time, as Kapur's leaden pacing and the script's soap-opera tou...
By
Jean Lowerison
of San Diego Metropolitan (7/0)
Too long, too ponderous, too noisy.
By
Ruthe Stein
of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
The danger in making a costume drama is that all of it will be as lifeless as wax figures. Kapur ...
By
Ruthe Stein
of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
Commanding the screen much as Elizabeth does her subjects, Blanchett suggests her character's and...
By
Gina Carbone
of Seacoast Newspapers (NH/Maine) (7/0)
The script is the flowery prose of an overly earnest high school student.
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Sean Axmaker
of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
If you're still not sure who to root for, just let the bombastic soundtrack pound the cues into y...
By
Jeff Shannon
of Seattle Times (7/0)
What compelled Kapur to film half the movie through scrims, curtains, screens and arches? How can...
By
Rich Cline
of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
Emphasises the costumes, hair and sets over historical accuracy and depth of character. But it's ...
By
Ed Gonzalez
of Slant Magazine (7/0)
The way Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells it, the Spanish Armada's defeat by the British Empire was...
By
Dana Stevens
of Slate (7/0)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is less a chronicle of counter-Reformation hijinks than a 16th-century ...
By
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
A sequel in which the Virgin Queen struggles to hold on to power in a time of great religious vio...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Thomas Peyser
of Style Weekly (Richmond, VA) (7/0)
F. Scott Fitzgerald once remarked that there are no second acts in American lives. If only the sa...
By
Ben Walters
of Time Out (4/3)
Making soap of statecraft, the film has plenty of juicy moments, but offers an inconsistent rathe...
By
Wendy Ide
of Times [UK] (7/0)
Kapur’s film is visually arresting, each frame a work of art in miniature. But there is something...
By
Tony Medley
of Tolucan Times (7/0)
Despite the ravishing Abbie Cornish, this is terminally melodramatic. The superficial treatment o...
By
Peter Howell
of Toronto Star (7/0)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age places its gilded head upon the chopping block right from the opening s...
By
Maitland McDonagh
of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
History gets short shrift from screenwriters William Nicholson and Michael Hirst -- starting with...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Urban Cinefile Critics
of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
It may have been a gamble for director Shekhar Kapur to pick up the threads of his acclaimed film...
By
Claudia Puig
of USA Today (7/0)
...squanders the opportunity to give us a telling glimpse of the woman behind the ruff.
By
Todd McCarthy
of Variety (7/0)
Overall, pic takes a small-minded view of history and, in its rush to proceed from one tumultuous...
By
Matthew Turner
of ViewLondon (7/0)
Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth sequel is a beautifully shot, impeccably designed and largely entertain...
By
Robert Wilonsky
of Village Voice (7/0)
Highbrow camp masquerading as a history lesson soapier than any bottle of detergent.
By
Desson Thomson
of Washington Post (7/0)
We are left choking in the billows and folds of Queen Elizabeth I's fabulous finery without a sin...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Daniel M. Kimmel
of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (7/0)
...a feast for the eyes and a portrait of a leader who has to rely as much on herself as anyone e...
By
Susan Granger
of www.susangranger.com (7/0)
A historical costume drama - with far more emphasis on the 'costume' than the 'drama.' And there'...
By
John Beifuss
of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
The elaborate costumes and set decoration provide the only interest.
By
Kerry Lengel
of Arizona Republic (3/4) No reference
Elizabeth achieved its power by focusing on the central idea of how a callow princess became a gr...
By
Christy Lemire
of Associated Press (3/4) No reference
Despite its lofty aspirations and late 16th century setting, this one belongs right up there with...
By
Christopher Smith
of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (3/4) No reference
The main difference between the first film and its new sequel is this: In "Elizabeth," Cate Bla...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Shlomo Schwartzberg
of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
Elizabeth: The Golden Age squanders its chance to paint history in the fascinating strokes of gra...
By
J. R. Jones
of Chicago Reader (3/4) No reference
Cate Blanchett returns to the role that made her a star, and though this sequel to Elizabeth (199...
By
Keith Uhlich
of House Next Door (6/1) No reference
An extended game of 16th-century Barbie.
By
Connie Ogle
of Miami Herald (3/4) No reference
Despite its title, Shekhar Kapur's new film resembles tarnished copper.
By
Stephen Whitty
of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
Even the chance to see Cate Blanchett strut and fret upon the stage, shooting haughty glances lef...
By
Marc Mohan
of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
The sets and costumes are elaborate Oscar bait, though the excess of candles sometimes makes thin...
Reviews of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By
Lawrence Toppman
of Charlotte Observer (3/4) Not Reachable
Those of us who looked forward to this second installment of a planned trilogy may now dread the ...
By
Harvey S. Karten
of Compuserve (3/4) Not Reachable
Bombastic music and lavish costumes cannot disguise the film's coming across as a ho-hum high-sch...
By
Mary F. Pols
of Contra Costa Times (3/4) Not Reachable
It dances through history, making us feel as though such spectacles as the defeat of the Spanish ...
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Working Title Films Movie Studios
Universal Pictures
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