The King Maker

The King Maker is a film about a series of real (citation needed) events that occurred during the Portuguese Occupation in Indochina.

Although the costumes and art direction are commendable, the movie still fails to impress the viewer. The acting, in particular, was extremely poor. Some of the actors are trying hard to let tears down and the accents, both real and fake, are extremely irritating. The storyline was also too dumb and too stupid to be true and it seemed more like a history lesson. The movie couldn't even capture that sort of regal and century-old air and it looked more like a botched attempt to make an Asian version of Elizabeth.

Final say? Costumes and art direction give the film a breath of fresh air, but the execution was extremely poor and the actors couldn't even give natural bursts of emotion. In short, the movie sounded more like hullabaloo than a script.

This is just a bad movie. With what seemed to be quite a nice budget it had potential to be much better. It almost were. With the heroine beautiful almost like Salma Hayek, hero fighting almost like Jackie Chan, battles and duels almost like in Crouching Tiger..., music almost like in, say, Conan... etc. Almost. But in the end it's just dull and it is hard to find anything interesting in it. Maybe apart of John Rhys-Davies flying in duel like those warriors in Hero or before-mentioned Crouching Tiger... I am really ashamed of poor old John. He is after all quite a good actor and deserves much better. So as you - so if you still have a chance just watch something else.

Unfortunately, this has been showing on Star Movies here in Thailand for the last week or so. It's complete rubbish acting. As another member said, this movie is a good example of 'how not to act.' I haven't seen a movie so poorly acted in a long time. The actors (can you call them 'actors'?) are completely flat and deliver their lines with the passion of a dead dog. I would say that in order to truly understand how bad the acting is, you would have to see the movie... but that would be akin to torture.

I cringe as the leading lady delivers her lines, and the rest of the cast with their accents (fake or contrived) is equally heinous. Another actress with the fake British accent was pretty, yes, but good lord was her accent terrible. Mix that with her (lack of) acting and you have a disaster. She should just have said nothing and I could have accepted her as the pretty girl. Oh my, we just got to the scene where the leading lady's lover says "Really me?" after a forced crying scene from her. Laughable. No, really, I just laughed out loud.

The sets and the art directors offer some saving grace to the film. Some of the sets are colorful and some of the scenes are rather nice (minus the actors).

The old magic potion lady? What?! Another member mentioned the 'modern' love song that was in the movie. Totally inappropriate for a period piece set some 500 years ago.

I understand the movie was considered 'Big Budget' in Thailand at the time of it's production. I would be seriously upset if I were the producer of this movie. Just goes to show that money does not necessarily make a good (or even mediocre) film.

I would give the King Maker a 1 out of 10, but the costumes and sets make save the film from such a rating. 2 out of 10.

I liked a lot of things about this movie... the scenes, the sets, costumes... but I feel like the actors were chosen solely by appearance... they do fit in.. until they speak. They speak with such a fake and weird English accent that it becomes cringy, really. Which is shame because they are quite good looking... the queen, her lover, Fernando, his girl, Tong etc. But most of them are really bad actors.. like, anti-talents... but not all. Wish there was more character development, because when you watch it like this you don't have much to linger on after. Everything is so obvious. Everyone's intentions, feelings. Not a bad thing, but it does feel empty and it makes you feel unsatisfied after enjoying the beautiful sets, decorations, costumes... it is just so straightforward and concrete. Also I need to comment acting of murdered king's brother. It's so terrible, I cringe and skip his part every time I watch the movie. I watch the movie only for couple of captivating interesting scenes because overall it's just unbearable to watch, which is shame, as it could have been a fantastic movie. Nevertheless it did make me fall in love with South East Asia with all that beauty, and if that is why they made the movie, they succeeded.

No spoilers! I liked this movie! It is a kid's movie with an R rating, ha ha.

OK, yes this movie is not excellent, but frankly it is not as bad as all these reviews say it is. I have seen many acclaimed movies that receive rave reviews that are not much better than this one. What is the difference between those movies and this one? This one has unknown lead actors and people are biased about watching movies with the lead roles not given to "star" actors. In my opinion the acting in this movie is not bad, just that the actors are not loved actors.

Some have criticized the modern music and the fake British accents. I am really tired of the hypocrisy of these kinds of reviews. First they want the music to be "true to the time period" and then they want the Portuguese to speak perfect British English. Give me a break, there is not a British character in the whole film, why should any of them speak English well?

The acting is not bad! It just isn't perfect! OK, granted the script does sound like they google translated it, the dialogue is awkward and sometimes doesn't really fit the character. But who cares? It is not an English film! I like the fact that they don't speak English very well. It gives it more authenticity as a whole.

Why can't people stop their petty criticism and just enjoy a movie for what it is? I think that what people don't like is the R rating with no nudity or gratuitous sex. I can guarantee that if they showed some naked breasts there would be far less bad reviews altogether. Personally, I didn't miss it!