Ridley Scott does another epic historical film. This time a humble blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) becomes a crusader knight and goes off to Jerusalem. There's a rugged authenticity to the film, shields look battered. The battles are epic with lots of blood flying in the close-ups and some impressive siege engines.

It doesn't demonise the muslim side. Actually it's some of the christians who come of worst as they are portrayed as blood-thirsty war-mongers. Saladin comes out of it very well. They actually used arab actors rather than disguising Europeans.

There's a bit of a love story with a princess, but otherwise very little female involvement.

I saw it on a plane, so didn't get the full impact of the effects, but they looked pretty good.

I'm still not totally convinced by Orlando. He's better in this than in LotR, but still lacks the charisma of someone like Russell Crowe. I can sort of see why people say he could be James Bond one day, but he needs to grow up a bit. He's not even 30!

Details of the film on IMDB.

I will resist the urge to rant about the pointlessness of fighting for a religion. I'm tempted to read more on this period in history. Any recommendations?