I have never seen such a waste of talent as this film. It's difficult to think what convinced stars of Bladerunner and Scarface to work on this. That can't be held totally to blame, Michelle Pfieffer must have known at the end how bad her performance was. Without inside info it's impossible to say if the director pushed her on or if she was genuinely oblivious.
Strangely the main stars of the film were upstaged by the comedic subplot starring Mathew Broderick and Ian McKern. Although they're only sidekicks, there to keep the main characters on the rails rather than have a direct role in the narrative, Mathew's character is a genuinely amusing thief who's constantly promising to give up his underhand ways while unwilling to do so in the need for self preservation.
The most painful aspect of this film and one which makes itself felt immediately is the awfully contemporary soundtrack which jarrs horribly with the medieval setting of the film. Somehow it managed to score four stars in a professional review.
The ending of the film seems like it belongs in a romance made several decades earlier, in an era best not resurrected. The amusing contradiction in the existence of Phillipe the thief and the operatic scene stealing way Mathew Broderick plays him is the only thing that stops this film from being on the Blacklist.
