Troy (2004)

I thought this was fairly stirring, surprisingly. It takes its time setting itself up (overlength is a problem), but once it starts humming it's pretty good. The dialogue is sharper than expected, with one good line balancing out every cheesy one, and even the cheeseball dialogue doesn't sound too bad -- the casting director did a fantastic job of corraling a bunch of actors who know exactly how to deliver this high-flown stuff. O'Toole, Bana, Cox and Gleeson are all fabulous, and even Pitt is effective. It's obvious why it failed -- it's awfully dark, cynical and ambiguous for a summer popcorn flick, with the final looting of Troy inspiring horror rather than triumph -- but it was at least worth my nine bucks.

Grade: B