River Queen

As the above suggests, I was ultimately unimpressed with this movie. It is lovely to look at, the scenery is lush, but the detail of the story, in particular the characters, are totally unbelievable. Films don't have to be believable,... Full review

wow, i just got one watching this.How CRAPPY post production is on this movie.I kid you not, I literally could've done a better job myself.ALL of post production is flawed, all of it. Whoever cut this film should be banned... Full review

A good example of reversed, politically correct racism where white men are presented as senseless brutes who're only there to be massacred and their aboriginal adversaries as noble heroes, superior both in their appearance and abilities. Apart from making the story... Full review

The anticipation of seeing Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis AND Keifer Sutherland all in the one movie had me salivating! However while I wouldn't say I was exactly disappointed with the movie I did feel that so much more could have... Full review

Peter Thompson, on this morning's Sunday show, gave River Queen a very favorable review; the review's timing was perfect because last evening Diane and I watched this new Kiwi film and drove home with mixed feelings about what we had... Full review

Boy did I enjoy River Queen. The scenery was stunning, the acting superb, the story brilliant, and the music was a hauntingly beautiful match to an incredible film. I always thought it would be great if a film was set... Full review

I just saw River Queen today. It's not as bad as the critics are saying. But it's not as good as it could have been. The acting from the leads is good, Cliff Curtis proves how world class he is... Full review

All Vincent Ward's movies have a heart, a visionary heart. It amazes me that he has managed to make as many movies as he has, as none of them have been block busters. They have all been personal and intense,... Full review

River Queen attempts to pack a complicated, sweeping, historical narrative into just under two hours. There are some breathtaking battle scenes and the Wanganui scenery is beautifully captured. However, the film did suffer from some poor leads - Samantha Morton... Full review

When I saw the two stars that the NZ Herald gave it I was not discouraged because the same critique gave King Kong 5 stars, which was the worst movie I've seen all year! River Queen was a beautiful movie.... Full review

feeling like a series of expositional scenes, River Queen becomes unexpectedly soporific as its long-seeming running time marches on..... ... Full Review

Abandoned by her father (Stephen Rea), Sarah tries to find her son, aided by her loyal friend Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland), a broken-down soldier. River Queen is beautifully shot, but it's also badly acted, poorly written, confusingly directed and frequently tedious, despite the occasional decent scene. ... Full Review

Typically for a Ward feature, River Queen is visually stunning. The montage that makes up the first section of the film feels awkward also (and is in fact similar to The New World - it feels as if it had been cut down). ... Full Review

Ward knew what project would be perfect for him....River Queen is a fictional tale of love and hardship set against the backdrop of the New Zealand Land Wars.....Natives Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis relished the opportunity to tell another story about the history of their people, so they were onboard.....Executive Producer Vincent Ward was gratified by the success of his last project, the Tom Cruise epic The Last Samurai..... ... Full Review

There is such a cinematic flurry in the opening scenes that we are restless before we get a chance to focus on the key characters and build some sort of rapport. These shortcomings accentuate the film's central weakness, which comes down to a failure of the characters to engage us enough and a story that meanders and stumbles. ... Full Review

ELKHART COUNTY, Indiana - Gardens planted in quilt patterns: it's a low-tech, enterprising project by our Hoosier neighbors that is an easy, inexpensive getaway. In its second year, the Quilt Gardens Tour features 16 gardens in Elkhart County, 140 miles... ... Full Article

The New Zealand Government has dropped the expenditure threshold by $760,000 (NZ$1m) to $3m (NZ$4m) for New Zealand films and New Zealand co-productions wanting to claim back 40% of this expenditure under the new Screen Production Incentive Fund (SPIF). ... Full Article

Samantha Morton's hissy fit on the set of River Queen led to the director getting sacked. Vincent Ward was hired back, but it raises the question - how much influence should stars be allowed to have on set? ... Full Article

Despite a host of setbacks during filming, including his own sacking, New Zealand director Vincent Ward believes River Queen ranks among his best work."I'm very excited about it," he said. ... Full Article

The time is 1854 and, as an opening text informs, New Zealand's indigenous Maori population is engaged in a last-ditch effort to stave off European colonization. ... Full Article

A yearning panpipe flutter or an obtrusive slo-mo flashback is never far away in Vincent Ward 's over-egged and under-cooked period piece, 'River Queen', a limp and unfocused jungle epic about a mother ( Samantha Morton , decent) who loses... ... Full Article