IMDB Rating: 3.70, 3532 votes |
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Doctor Wesley McClaren is an immunologist in Ennis, Montana, and he has turned down an offer to join his friend Richard Bach, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is the head of a unit called the Biological Response Team (BRT). Wesley and his daughter Holly live on a farm in Ennis, and a farmhand named Frank lives with them. Just over the hill from the farm, a 52 day standoff against militia leader Floyd Chisolm has ended. Floyd has decided to be his own attorney in court. Everyone is shocked when Floyd spits on Judge Tomkins. After the hearing, Tomkins starts feeling sick. Holly, like she always does, stops at Wesley's office after school so she can go home with Wesley. On their way home, Wesley gets a call on his mobile phone. Wesley rushes to the hospital with Holly and tells her to wait in the doctors' lounge, then Wesley is taken to see Tomkins, who looks awful. Wesley is told that Tomkins collapsed in his chambers at the court building. Wesley sees a cop collapse, while Tomkins has a seizure. Wesley calls Richard and tells him to send the BRT. Army medical units are sent in, and Ennis is sealed off. Wesley tells Frank to stay in town instead of going to the farm, then Wesley tells Holly to stay where she is, because the town is dealing with an outbreak. Richard arrives in town and talks to Wesley, who knows that some kind of toxin has been released. Wesley asks Richard about an anti-toxin, then they go to Tomkins's room, where Tomkins has died. Richard tells Wesley that the toxin is a warfare product called NAM37, which is ten times more potent than anthrax. Richard also tells Wesley that a technician working for NAM37's developers stole a big sample of the NAM37 and was detained by security in Billings, Montana, one day after the NAM37 was sold to Floyd, but the technician killed himself before anyone could ask him any questions. After buying the NAM37, Floyd infected himself and started the outbreak by spitting on Tomkins. So far, 94 people have been infected, and the NAM37 has killed 5 people. Wesley takes a sample of Holly's blood, and Floyd is visited in jail by his right hand man and medical expert Nate Pogue, who has also been infected. and the anti-toxin Floyd bought along with the NAM37 only slows the NAM37 down instead of being a cure. Floyd's plan was to start the outbreak, then use the anti-toxin on himself. Floyd tells Pogue to get him out so they can get the anti-toxin that the army has brought into town. Later, a group of men led by Pogue return to the jail, where they kill all of the guards and get Floyd out. Floyd and Pogue go to the hospital with their men, and they take the hospital hostage in hopes of getting the anti-toxin, only to discover that the army's anti-toxin is the same anti-toxin Floyd bought. Richard explains that there have been times when NAM37 has mutated, and when it does, the anti-toxin doesn't work. Pogue sees Holly's blood sample and the sample shows that Holly has been infected, but somehow, she's okay and her body is fighting it off. Floyd wants Holly found. When one of Floyd's men finds Holly in the lounge and tries to grab her, Wesley beats the man up and goes to the farm with Holly and Frank. Floyd's men head to Wesley's farm, where Frank ambushes them and kills all of them except for one man, who kills Frank. Wesley and Holly take off with Frank's body, and ride their horses to a farm where Holly's Grandpa lives, and they give Frank a proper burial. Wesley takes a blood sample from his friend Ann (Whitney Yellow Robe), and just like Holly, Ann's body is fighting off the NAM37. Leaving Holly at her Grandpa's house, Wesley and Ann go to an underground lab that Wesley used to work in, where they plan to come up with a cure. Pogue, who is still at the hospital with Floyd, thinks he has found a cure, but he needs Holly's blood to isolate it. After Wesley finds the reason why Ann and Holly are not being affected by the virus, Wesley and Holly go home...where Holly is kidnapped by Floyd's men. Now Wesley must go to Floyd's headquarters and rescue Holly.Actors
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33 Comments
You didn’t see Braveheart, did you? Oh-you did? Don’t see this one.
Actually pretty good
Plot: 7
Originality: 5
Visuals: 7
Acting: 7
Overall: 6.5
Skewed, manipulative crap
It is a great movie about the war that gave birth to our country.
I cried when Heath Ledger died.
Good acting but a little bit of a cliched story line. Still worth seeing.
pretty arse.
Mel Gibson is awesome, and this movie contends with the likes of Gladiator.
Braveheart Strikes Back
Mel Gibson.
An epic war film.
One of the key figures in a revolution.
No, I did not post the wrong title above. These are the correct characteristics of The Patriot. They may seem similar to those of Braveheart, and that could be one possible reason this average flick was made.
Mel Gibson stars in The Patriot as Benjamin Martin, an older war vet who does not want himself, his family or his nation to undertake the tolls of the Revolutionary War. When his oldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), enters the war, though, Benjamin has no choice but to go find him, which eventually entangles him into the battles.
The film is an entertaining war film, but nowhere near the emotional depths of Saving Private Ryan, nor the execution of Spielberg’s war epic. Director Roland Emmerich seems to have 2 agendas: first, to make this look somewhat like a war film, while still doing the second thing, which is to have a lot of blood, and a lot of Mel Gibson. After all, that’s all we Americans want, right?
What The Patriot suffers from the most, however, is the story. There are certain points where characters are needlessly killed off in order to keep Mel’s character alive. I know Mel is the headliner, but compromising a potentially great story for the sake of its star is needless.
What salvages The Patriot is its father-son storyline, which is executed much better than in Frequency. Emmerich, to his credit, and to the credit of writer Robert Rodat (who also scripted Spielberg’s aforementioned Ryan), is able to sustain the relationship while the film heavily emerges itself deeper into the war. Heather Ledger gives a great performance as Benjamin Martin’s patriotic son. He is able to pull off the manners of the time (something that others in cast poorly do), while still displaying the raw emotion that a film like The Patriot craves to keep it going.
The Patriot is hardly a RAH RAH American film. Heck, I felt more patriotic at the end of Rocky IV than I did at the end of this film. The father-son dynamics are what keep The Patriot going, and while Gibson’s power comes across in negative ways throughout the film, I’ll still wait in line to see this Patriot any day of the week.
Decent explosions, ludicrous story, button-pushing direction.
I really hate it when a movie pushes my buttons. Using little kids and fatherhood to make me cry. It’s like it didn’t earn my emotion. That makes me really kind of pissed off.
The family crap I could’ve done without. I think the true details of the American Revolution would have been plenty of fodder for an engrossing film. And the way the slavery issue is just kind of glossed over is just disgusting.
The interaction with the British bastards was good, as was the whole deal with Mel-man being this old-school soldier guy with a whole gang of hard-bitten cronies.
So I was into that stuff, but then they went and made it look like that gang of hard-bitten old cronies won the war all by themselves. Please. Go back to high school and watch Johnny Tremaine. It’s better.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I hate war movies!
I always hated war movies, especially those that dealt with the revolutionary war. My older son coerced me into watching it and I was definitely impresssed. The action wasn’t as important to me as the underlying story. A man who is against the war, but spearheads the militia partly in retaliation for killing members of his family. You must see it.
Braveheart does the American Revolution
Like Mel Gibson in just about anything . . . but this one ranks up there with "Hamlet" as a stinker.
Gory, but realistic. Made good use of occasional humor.
Action adventure lots if things going on. Underlying themes running at the same time. Good interaction with other actors. Lots of changes of pace. Drama sometimes intense sometimes laid back. All in all I liked it.I would see it again.
Authentic battles, somewhat depressing, Grade-AA
Strong acting by Gibson. Some bad gore. Depressing when characters you have come to like are ruthlessly killed. You really start to hate one British General for the truly evil things he does (burning of church).
Strong Acting, good plot, authentic battles.
Great movie, go get it on DVD.
At last an uplifting, inspiring movie that does not destroy our culture.
One of the best movies I have seen. It has violence in it but war in Revolutionary times was not pretty. It makes me appreciate our freedom.
The American Spirit flys high in this epic film! Outstanding!
Superb film with great war sequences
The Patriot is a superb war film that should entertained all of Mel Gibson’s fans, people who love violent action scenes, and some good humour. Everything is very realistic and enjoyable and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
However some of the british public might not go along with the british being baddies (YET AGAIN!). but one clear fact from this still remains. Britian always give good actors to play baddies.
Apart from that, enjoyable and great film. Don’t let the length put you off!
Better than I had expected. Not at all Braveheart IV.
The Patriot though disappointing to some historians proved itself to be entertaining, inspirational, and execellently crafted. I felt this film had some very moving parts and the actors fulfilled their roles to the best of their ability. There is one scene that moved me to tears for its deeper patriotic theme. Too many Americans take for granted the suffering that allows them their freedom today. Thank you for a great flick.
Pretty good, but it has all been done before - the ending was really good though
Terrific movie. All the acting is excellent. A little bloody for youngsters.
same ‘ol same ‘ol
OK OK so Heath is cute…the movie was good on lots of levels…there was a plot and good characters and such, but scene after scene was quite predictable. The movie could have been shortened and been the exact same movie. Good movie, but typical Hollywood cookie-cutting.
Nothing new here…
Braveheart with a different war. Hollywood’s typical rewriting of history (actually I don’t care so much about that). With a bit of Saving Private Ryan thrown in — the whole war is bad, war is real, war is bloody thing.
Overall entertaining, but nothing more than your average recycled Hollywood thing…
An image of a war at home
I was bothered that The Patriot
If you liked Braveheart, you’ll like Patriot. Just a different time, a different place and a different cause. It’s still Mel but not as much gore.
mel kills a lot of brits!
you know the feeling when you leave a movie, a bit empty? not too dissappointed but none the less a little let down?
thats what i felt about this one. just because it seemed so epic in proportions and braveheart and shawshank were so great. it kind of lingered in parts and without any huge expectations i figure this a fairly decent movie but nothing fantastic. i really wanted it to be better. . . but it wasn’t.
Dean and Roland do know how to make a good movie.
After the last few movies by this team, i had very little hope that the Patriot would be cool. But I’m glad i was wrong this movie was very well done. I’m not sure how accurate it was but it was definitely worth seeing.
Don’t know why all the reviewers knock this movie b/c it is not historically correct. Get with it guys, this is a summer block-buster movie, it is not and does not claim to be a historical piece on the American Revolution.
The movie aims to entertain, and in that, it succeeds.
Agreed, there are some cheesy moments. Can you say Dead Poet’s Society?
watch the damn movie. it kicks ass. then go light some firecrackers. USA!
A bit cheesy in a couple of places, but overall a very good movie.
but not very accurate/see the history channel!!!
A great movie…
its just too bad that Gibson had made braveheart(a great film too), cause that fact will guarantee alot of unwarranted comparisons. One grievance I had with the film is that it didn’t need to be that long, alot of extra sideplots that could have been left on the cutting room floor. But again over all it is a very well made film, well acted and well worth the price of admission.
Every man dies. Not every man really lives. Again.
That’s not a wholly fair statement. The movie isn’t a complete ripoff of Braveheart. But it’s comparable in many ways. But don’t let that stop you from seeing it.
Ok, so maybe it was a bit excessive of me to yell out "FREEDOM!" as the end credits were rolling. But at least some people laughed.
Don’t expect a far sweeping epic covering much of the American Revolution. Basically the story is about Benjamin Martin (Mad Max, err, Mel Gibson), a retired soldier and war hero who is reluctant to get involved in the "American Rebellion of 1776." Things come to a head when his eldest son signs up anyway.
Family members die, homes get burned up, life is made generally miserable, and almost all of it at the hands of a certain Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs of Armageddon fame) of a unit of Dragoons (cavalry). The good "kernel" should have stuck to coming up with ways of blowing up meteors the size of Texas instead of killing family members of a man once known as Mad Max. Big mistake on his part. William Wallace is a bigger force of nature than any old space rock.
The battle scenes are pretty graphic. The cannonball sequences are done in slow motion. That is until the cannonball connects. Come on, baby. I need to pick up that spare! Steeeeee-rike!
You gotta wonder how people could have possibly invented a worse way to conduct warfare. Stand perfectly still fifty feet away from your opponent and let him shoot at you? Puuleeeeze… Fair wonder we advanced past that stone age of thinking.
Don’t expect any cool sea battles either. Can you say "jack-move?" Sad to say that we were only given a taste of the sea. When was the last really good sea battle movie with wooden ships anyway? Certainly not that cheesy pirate movie starring the Thelma and Louise co-star (what was her name??? argh…).
This movie is still cool to watch. Lots of excitement, battle scenes, and with a decent story about a reluctant hero. (i.e. William Wallace in Braveheart, i.e. Maximus in Gladiator, i.e. Captain John Miller Saving Private Ryan, etc)
Definitely recommended.