This big-budget western bears a striking resemblance to the recent Tom Cruise vehicle The Last Samurai, though it's more fun and less pretentious.

Sharif grounds the silliness a little. When he looks across the desert with those eyes that have always hinted that hard weather is coming, everybody else rushing around the set looks overdressed for a costume party.

Formulaic, overly simple, too violent for tweens.

Although some of the colonial stylization is impressive, this Mortensen post-"Rings" vehicle is pure horse neck and camel meat.