Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by user510 (M) on July 22, 2015 at 15:37:34

I caught this 3 episode mini-series over the past few days.
Egypt in the latter days of its glory.

Production quality was very good. The atmosphere definitely took us into a believable approximation of Thebes in ancient days.

The cast was headlined by Ben Kingsly as the Vizier and closest adviser to the Pharoah. The rest is a collection of pretty young faces not yet established. But pretty they are and the acting is tolerable and does not distract from the story.

The story itself is obviously contrived and a bit on the shallow side. You might like it if you just want to escape into a story of ancient Egypt, about Egyptians and the struggles, internal and external of its Kingdom.

There is plenty of blood and gore. Spears sticking out of more than one body in ways that look like a horrific way to die. There is warfare with a neighboring Kingdom, the Mitani. Perhaps the writers wanted to parallel the struggles between the Hittite Kingdom and Ramses II. But that happened centuries earlier than the time of Tut. I take it that the Mitani were imagined by the screen writers just to add a warfare element into the proceedings.

Fwiw, the stunt action in battle scenes was convincing enough without being over-worked or too stylish or gratuitous.

Speaking of gratuitous, there are some gratuitous sex scenes. Borderline "R" in places. But no full frontal nudity. The camera plays hide and seek with attractive nubile females. This is commercial TV.

Power struggles between the priesthood, the military and the Pharoah lead to murder plots, counter plots, escape, surprise and retribution. And with one character, redemption.

-Steve