Noah (2014) - ★★★

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writers: Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel
Stars: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, Douglas Booth

I look back on Noah with fondness. It's hard to explain why, but I feel nothing but warmth towards this film after having seen it. Noah is far from a perfect film. It had an absolutely stellar first half, and an absolutely shit second half. They almost balance each other out, but I'd say the greatness we witnessed in the first half saved the film from being a bad movie. I don't know what people are talking about when they call this an 'epic.' Let me clarify... I don't think this is an epic film. The special effects and story itself is grand, that's for sure. However, the small cast and medium length running time just puts it into the category of 'big budget production.' Never the less, it was an entertaining film for the most part. There are things in it that are forgettable, and there are things that are absolutely unforgettable.

Red Cliff: Part One (2008) - ★★★★½

Director: John Woo
Writers: John Woo, Khan Chan, Cheng Kuo, Heyu Sheng (screenplay), Guanzhong Luo (novel)
Stars: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Wei Zhao, Shido Nakamura, Chiling Lin

Red Cliff is one of the most spectacular, breathtaking, epic films of all time. Every time I see this film, it leaves me in a state of awe. The cinematography is as beautiful as anything I've ever seen on film. The score by Taro Iwashiro is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard... it sends chills up my spine. The talented all-star cast managed to make these legendary war-lords and ladies appear every bit as powerful as their legend says. Let me tell you, Red Cliff is two and a half hours of thrilling action, handled with amazing artistry and graceful film-craftsmanship. To me, this movie is every bit as entertaining and epic as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. 

The Ten Commandments (1956) - ★★

Director: Cecil B. Demille
Writers: Twas a large collaboration
Stars: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, Martha Scott, Judith Anderson, Vincent Price

I think critics forgive a lot of faults when it comes to epic movies. In particular, Cecil B. Demille epics. The Ten Commandments is a movie so grand in scale that people don't sweat the little stuff, and focus on the amazing special effects and cinematography. As for me, I found there were too many unforgivable problems to call this a good movie. The acting was atrocious by almost the entire cast, and the dialogue was highly laughable (for it was a terrible mixture of Hollywood cheese and Bible-esque speech). The story itself is highly interesting, but it drags on so long in this movie that I lost almost all interest in the film. The only thing that kept me going was the hope for an epic 'plagues of Egypt' sequence.

The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) - ★★★★

Director: Anthony Mann
Writers: Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina, Philip Yordan (Screenplay)
Stars: Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Anthony Quayle, Omar Sharif

The Fall of the Roman Empire (FRE) is probably the most visually stunning film I've ever seen. Life of Pi has the most brilliant special effects I've ever seen, but FRE takes the prize for greatest set production... by far! Scene after scene, gasp after gasp, the grand vision of Rome, the costumes... everything had me mesmerised. The story is epicly amazing, which is a given considering ancient Rome is arguably the most interesting period in history. I loved the performances (for the most part), I adored the score, but above all I adored the way they rebuilt ancient Rome. It's like it never left! The pacing is a bit too slow, and Stephen Boyd's performance was pretty annoying, but I'm still in awe of how epic this movie is.

The Lion in Winter (1968) - ★★★★½

Director: Anthony Harvey
Writers: James Goldman
Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Jane Merrow

The Lion in Winter is the first film I've decided to watch for my Epic Movie Marathon, and I must say, it is a spectacular film. I wouldn't quite call it an epic, seeing as it had a small cast and a running time of 134 minutes, but my God did it feel epic! The performances are up there with the very best I've ever seen. It had a plot filled with venom and betrayal, spoken with spine-chilling dialogue. O'Toole and Hepburn are two of the greatest actors of all time, and they finally meet their match when they butt heads as the King and Queen of England. I loved the twists and turns, the intelligence, depth and eloquence to the characters, and the way it made me feel like a fly on the wall. It's submersing, it's thrilling, and it's one of the best movies of 1968.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) - ★★★

Director: Michael Curtiz
Writers: Michael Jacoby, Rowland Leigh, Alfred Lord Tennyson
Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Patric Knowles, Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce, David Niven, C. Henry Gordon, Spring Byington

The Charge of the Light Brigade is such an epic, sweeping film. It's entertaining, thrilling, and has its moments of humour and sadness. I adore Errol Flynn in this film. This is one of his most underrated roles, for he had so many ferocious and tender moments. The love-triangle romance is executed in a most cheesy fashion, but the scenes of war and strategy were truly masterful. There were two things I didn't like. One being the shaky and unconvincing performances by Olivia DeHavilland and Patric Knowles. The other reason being the despicable display of cruelty to horses in the final scene. It produced a very thrilling finale, but at the cost of causing unnecessary pain, suffering, and death to horses. If I put that out of my mind, then I'd call this a good film.

The Cardinal (1963) - ★★

Director: Otto Preminger
Writer: Robert Dozier (screenplay), Henry Morton Robinson (novel)
Stars: Tom Tryon, John Huston, Carol Lynley, Dorothy Gish

The Cardinal is quite the epic film. At over 3 hours long, it skims through controversial topics such as: sex before marriage, abortion, crisis of faith, racism, and the rise of the Nazi's. It just drags and drags. Nothing of any importance happens at all in the first hour, where they mainly talk of uninteresting things with very little substance. The 5 topics mentioned above were all crammed into the tiny 2 hour space, where they half-assed it and barely skimmed the surface of the issues they raise. I don't know how anyone could have thought this was a good idea, unless they wanted it to be an exploitation film that convinces people that Catholicism is the divine path to righteousness.

Cloud Atlas (2012) - ★★★★½

Directors: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Writers: David Mitchell (Novel), The Directors (Screenplay)
Stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Doona Bae, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw, Benedict Cumberbatch, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess, Keith David, James D'Arcy

Cloud Atlas is without a doubt the most overlooked movie of the year. In my heart, I give this movie 5 Stars. It swept me away in a world of adventure, romance, sci-fi, horror, action and fantasy. I can't in all consciousness say this is a perfect movie, or rank it as high as films like Lawrence of Arabia. But trust me, it comes pretty darn close to achieving that level. It's an 'epic' in every sense of the word. It's so big, so beautiful, I get emotional just thinking about it. The acting is masterful, the music is among the greatest ever composed, the cinematography is stunning, the special effects astounding, the make-up is wild and amazing... this film 'enchanted me, body and soul.'