Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia, the successful video game series makes the leap to the big screen. Prince Dastan; once a homeless orphan, now an adopted Prince of the Persian Empire is leading armies in the expansion of Persia. A holy city under Persian rule is suspected of dealing arms to enemies of the empire. As Dastan leads a raid on the city, a magical dagger comes into his possession which can turn back time. A weapon that will prove most useful, as he has just been accused of the murder of his father, the King of Persia.

So overall this is a fun movie, but it has it's issues. I don't understand the reason everyone has British accents, even our star Jake Gyllenhaal...who is an American playing a Persian...I guess the same reason why all Hollywood portrayals of ancient Romans have British accents...sounds more historic I guess. Anyway, minor complaint. There is a LOT of action, but a large amount of it suffers from the Bourne Supremacy Syndrome, where the camera is flying around so fast and so close to the action that you're confused as to what's going on and who's doing what. There's some good acting as well as some boxed up performances. Gyllenhaal and Kingsley seem a tad underwhelming in their roles, while Alfred Molina does a great job as a merciless gambler and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) is likeable enough as the princess. The story isn't the greatest but it's not bad. We just don't come to really root for the characters. At one point I remember thinking, "This needs a Captain Jack Sparrow-type character", a character that just makes each scene fun. But the running time is good, just under 2 hours, so you're never really getting sick of things and it keeps you interested enough til the end, which has some nice moments.

** out of 4 - Rentable (PG-13 for violence)