What a waste of my time!!!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Absolutely amazing

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Released to video in 2001 and originally titled "Vercingétorix" (also known as "The Gaul"), "Druids" relays the story of Vercingétorix (Christopher Lambert) who unites the people of Gaul (Northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, as well as areas of the Netherlands and Germany) and led them against Roman domination at the hands of Julius Caesar in 52 BC. The film details the Battle of Gergovia, which the Gauls won, and culminates with the decisive Battle of Alesia. Max Von Sydow plays a Druid sage who advises Vercingétorix (VER-sin-JET-er-ix).This is a low-budget France/Canada/Belgium production that lacks the technical excellence of films like "Braveheart" and "King Arthur," which explains why it was released straight-to-video. Nevertheless, it was released theatrically in most of Europe, including France where it was said to be popular (unsurprisingly). Certain aspects are even cartoonish and amateurish (e.g. the wigs), almost like an episode of "Xena." Unlike "Xena," however, it's R-rated and features quite a bit of female top nudity, if that's your thang; there's some gore too, but it's rather tame.I read the horrible reviews beforehand and was therefore prepared for the worst. It's obvious why people lambaste "Druids" because it's so wrong, like the thoroughly incongruous score during a couple of the battle sequences. If you can accept the limitations of the production and adapt to the almost surreal badness of it all, however, the movie has some highlights, like the stunning Maria Kavardjikova as Rhia, Vercingétorix' female associate. Some People complain that Klaus Maria Brandauer as Caesar seems bored in the role, but he was effectively austere, displaying the over-confident pomp of a Roman Emperor. Although the opening act is weak (tempting viewers to tune out), the story mildly grabs your attention thereafter as long as you can acclimate to the unique (to be nice) presentation. Moreover, some parts of the score are good, as are the awesome Bulgarian locations and some of the (sometimes cheesy) sets. The cinematography's weak, however, as are several of the peripheral cast.What's good about "Druids" is that it does inspire you to research the real-life story of Vercingétorix and his struggle to free the Gauls from Roman rule, as well as other items in the movie, like the Teutons, which are depicted in an almost laughable manner in the movie. I briefly read about the Gauls and Vercingétorix in college, but it was long forgotten until seeing this movie.FINAL WORD: While "Druids" has some points of interest, like Rhia and the locations, it's really only worthwhile in a so-bad-it's-good way, although some people might be able to adjust to the cheesy presentation and take it seriously (I did, but only to a degree). For an excellent sword & sandal TV flick from the same time period (2001) see "Attila." The film runs 124 minutes.GRADE: C-

I certainly don't think The Gaul, Druids or Vercingétorix: La légende du druide roi...(or whatever the alternate title is) is one of the worst movies ever. But it certain isn't a memorable epic. The storyline is a fairly historically accurate tribute to one of the great French ancients. Unfortunately, the French didn't make a worthy tribute to a hero. Criticism falls all over, whether it's boring, poorly written, is a waste of Max von Sydow and Klaus Maria Brandauer (Christopher Lambert doesn't have talent to waste), has errors or is poorly directed. I'm not sure if any of the reasons given is really true.For an epic, it is weak as it lacks visual beauty that most epics (e.g, Gladiator, Braveheart) typically have. Most modern epics have large doses of action and gore but this film lacks either. Without visual effects, it's more in the style of classic epics such as Spartacus but it also lacks fine cinematography necessary for an epic. Camera-work is also very mediocre. It seems the director Jacques Dorfmann lacked imagination and a flair for capturing the audience. It has the appearance of a made-for-TV film. The script actually has some fine lines (see the "quotes" on IMDb) but runs into inconsistent and awkwardness at times and some poor acting by the supporting cast. It's dry lack of imagination, inability to captivate the audience, poor cinematography and poor supporting cast just stamp mediocrity all over it.

Vercingetorix is not a great movie; it has serious structural and scenographical problems, and the plot is plodding along with little tightness or coherence, and some of the characters are made up to look rather ridiculous (particularly the Teutons, sporting neon-red hair-buns over naked torsos, making them look rather like half-naked drag-queens). And then it goes on a bit too long, becoming quite boring towards the end.But that's it. Other than this it's not an especially bad movie. The story is fairly straightforward and the production values are fair and seem to be reasonably historically accurate. Again, no masterpiece, but certainly an effort that lives up to the (rather poor) commercial standard of mainstream movie-making, hence deserving a rating of about 5 out of 10. But I guess this is another of the many movies rated only by people who do not understand anything in between 1 and 10... I really don't know what you people expected from this movie...

I am generally an easy movie critic. I'd like to think of myself as a hardcore movie buff who has a strict scale when it comes to movies, but usually it does not take much to entertain me, and if the plot, acting, and directing are all halfway decent, I am very forgiving. Which is why I was astounded at how much I hated this movie. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie this bad, in fact, this may be THE worst movie I have ever seen. 30 seconds into it, I had already realized I made a mistake. But I am the kind of person that once I start a movie, I must finish it through to the end. So you can imagine how distraught I was at having to sit there for another two hours and watch this absurdity of a plot roll further and further downhill.Firstly, the characters are flat, there's no development to be seen, and it is utterly impossible to connect with them or root for them. You just won't care. Secondly, the plot is a disaster. Like reviewers before me have said, there are random scenes in which nothing of any importance to the plot whatsoever happens, and they go by quick and unexplained. It is very hard to follow and understand because the editing is atrocious and I have honestly never seen anything like it. The acting is actually enough to make you laugh out loud at the characters total lack of enthusiasm or believability. And everything looks lip-synced even though it's all supposed to be in English anyway. Furthermore, the historical accuracy is off, I am quite sure. I am no historian by any means, but I'm almost positive that the sophistication of the armor and weapons in this movie (which is supposed to be set in 60 B.C.) were not seen until at least a thousand years later in the middle ages. However, that's not to say that the props in the movie were good, rather they looked like they came from a discount Halloween store down the street.There are seriously far too many blunders with this movie to even list. I loved Christopher Lambert's performance in Highlander, and I liked the movie despite its cheesiness, so I figured that this would be something along the same lines. I was gravely mistaken. Christopher Lambert is beginning to prove himself an utter disappointment of an actor due to the caliber of films he has starred in recently and I will think twice before I see anything else he stars in.I am willing to bet a large sum of money that the director and producers of this movie are off somewhere laughing their heads off that people are actually taking the time to watch their movie, because really no one could possibly be serious in releasing a movie as preposterous as this. I am not one to always believe everything I read in reviews, and have liked a few movies that have gotten terrible reviews, but please trust me when I tell you not to waste your time with this one. Do something more productive. Like walking the dog, or mowing the lawn, or taking a crap.