Prince of Persia Review

Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia is released today in France - french poster above - and Friday in the U.S. I saw it at Paris press screening one week ago. It's a typical Bruckheimer summer movie and as usual the production is pretty good. Beautiful decors - even if most of the gorgeous oriental cities are digitally created - and those of you who like Adventureland theming should like them a lot. The movie photography and original music score are very good too.





As we know the movie is inspired by Prince of Persia's video game and should delight the fans. And what about the actors? Ben Kingsley is once again playing the bad guy and he is generally good playing villains. But for me the problem is Jake Gyllenhaal. He is generally a good actor - remember him in Oscar winner's Brokeback Mountain? - and he is obviously trying to do his best in Prince of Persia, but sorry, he didn't convinced me and I even think he's a casting mistake. Now, may be it's not totally his fault as the story line remains extremely primary. Really. The movie is well directed by Mike Newell and SFX are as good as we can expect but it's a pity that the movie didn't had a better script.





It supposed to be a "A" movie and for Jerry Bruckheimer it's may be his "Lawrence of Arabia" but not anyone can be David Lean and in fact it's a deluxe "B" movie, that's what it is. You won't have a bad time watching it but you'll probably forget it as fast as you saw it except may be the beautiful decors and costumes that will remain in your mind. I don't expect the movie box-office to be huge - not bad either but just a medium success - and i'm not even sure there will be a sequel, but who knows, I may be wrong!

Anyway, you understood that i'm not extremely enthusiastic about Prince of Persia but if you want to know more about it here is some video interviews - with french subtitles for my french readers! - beginning by actor Jake Gyllenhaal playing Dastan...





...Gemma Arterton playing the beautiful Princesse Tamina...





...Sir Ben Kingsley, playing the "traitor" Nizam...





...And director Mike Newell & producer Jerry Bruckheimer.





Picture and videos: copyright Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer

D23 EXPO Special Report by Andy Castro : The Walt Disney Studios Exhibit

The Walt Disney Studios had a great exhibit at the D23 Expo where guests could see props, sculptures and paintings that were used in the making of upcoming Disney movies. Thanks to Andy Castro's wonderful pics we will have today a closer look to them.

Let's begin by the items related to the Tim Burton's Alice in wonderland.





















Next, the beautiful paintings for Robert Zemeckis "A Christmas Carol". By the way, i just learned today that the movie will have its world premiere on November 3 in London. regent Street, Oxford street and The "City" will be decorated with the colors of the movie. Jim Carrey, Colin Firth, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins and director Robert Zemeckis will be there for the celebration.

The world premiere will happen at Leicester Square, and for the first time in history, the three Leicester Square theatres will be part of the premiere, with 4000 seats reserved for this memorable event. tickets will be available for everybody so everyone will be able to be part of the premiere. Christmas carols singers ressed in 19th century costumes, snow falls, shows and giant screens will be all around Leicester Square. The premiere will be at the benefit of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.













Here are pictures of three gorgeous painting - in the grand tradition of Peter Ellenshaw matte paintings. For each painting, you have below the "framed" version and the high-res "flat" picture.









My God, they had the genius idea to show Big Ben while it was in construction! I love this one...





Next pictures are about Jerry Bruckheimer's production, Prince of Persia.







This Chinese Dragon was used in the making of The Sorcerer Apprentice.



Animated movies also had their own exhibit, whether it is 2D animation with Princess and the Frog sculptures...

















...or 3D animation with the highly awaited TRON Legacy. Note that all pictures below of the fantastic TRON lightcycle are in high-res.















This last picture will end this article, but Andy and I will be back soon for a last D23 Expo article, and if you love artwork this next one will be fantastic, so don't miss it!


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

All pictures: copyright Andy Castro and Disney and more

Prince of Persia video game now available for MAC

We still have to wait one more year before Prince of Persia "Sands of Time" - the next Disney-Bruckheimer big production starring Jake Gillenhaal and Ben Kingsley - will be release but the new Ubisoft video game now available in a MAC version (the game was available for PC since two months) give indications about how Prince of Persia's world should look in the movie.

Set in medieval Persia, the story of an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. Which is why after the prince was tricked by a dying Vizier to unleash the Sands of Time that turns out to destroy a kingdom and transforms its populace into ferocious demons. In his effort to save his own kingdom and redeem his fatal mistake, it's up to the prince and the princess to return the sands to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives him a limited control over the flow of time

Below, the video game trailer. Price of the game for MAC or PC is $49.99, and the MAC download is HERE.





And here is a video with comments from a player.



Picture and videos: copyright Ubisoft