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For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This epic, sprawling medieval adventure starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh is like a one of a kind, terrific, brutal, and audacious warmhearted tale with warranted flesh and blood. Jennifer Jason Leigh is as sweet, as pretty, as gorgeous as they come. Hauer and Leigh give epic+sprawling portrayals! I really love Jennifer's epic sprawl in Flesh+Blood! A 6.9! I love this movie. An 8 in my book. JJL is like a sweet feast! I love her. She's got the goods.

In this tale told by Paul Verhoeven and written by Gerard Soeteman, we follow a group of medieval mercenaries who get double-crossed by their commanding officer, which leads them down a path of revenge, crime and bloodshed. Essentially it's a Robin Hood story, or an underdog tale, but with no punches pulled and with a taste for the gore and splatter. Verhoeven is most known for his dark scifi action films, like Total Recall and RoboCop, but this film is very much his creation when it comes to the style.And I have to admit that I like it a lot. Verhoeven's signature style is all over the screen with this one and it just might be one of the most brutal medieval adventure films I've ever seen. No one comes out of this film unscathed and it's such a jaded film that it's even hard to pick sides. The mercenaries are justified in their lust for revenge, but they also end up kidnapping the bride of the son of their betrayer and abusing her in very dark ways. On the other hand the bride is not a saint either, and very much not a damsel in distress, being willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Whereas the son of the betrayer, the groom as it may be, is perhaps the most virtuous of the whole cast, but even he has his dark tendencies.And it's just a great adventure film in its own right. The setting is great, the characters are all shades of awesome, the action scenes are just the right amount of over the top and the whole film has this unmistakable style of the 80s. Blood and gore, smoke and shadows.Very much worth a watch for all fans of dark and one of my favourite Verhoeven movies.

I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this despite being a Verhoeven fan because of the historic element and the scale of the tale. Indeed at the start I was pretty certain the two hours were going to be a problem. Lots of anonymous battling with Tom Burlinson introduced as the young lead. Most uncharismatic, though things did pick up with the appearance of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Then with the appearance of Rutger Hauer all began to click and Jason Leigh fairly blossomed in her first major starring role. The sex is more explicit and rumbustious than the violence is bloody and perhaps reflects the times, which have certainly changed in this respect. I found the Leonardo Da Vinci type erections intriguing and amusing and after that shaky start there always seemed to be something to catch the eye or hold the interest to keep a very crowded and dark tale afloat.

Out of the middle ages and onto the big screen....then hopefully into the trash. Flesh and Blood is yet another film so bad that I didn't finish it and therefore should probably not be reviewing, but I must. Everybody, stay away.Set in Feudal Holland, A sleazy lord, promises his mercenaries treasure and festivity if they help him retake the castle he lost. After the brutal battle, they have victory, but the lord then denies his promise, forces his men to drop their arms, and abandon the premises. Rutger Hauer, Plays Martin, your basic hansom young warrior, who with the help of some of his fellow mercenaries, including a cardinal, decide it's payback time. His plans starts with abducting of The fiancée of the evil dukes young son. She is taken before she and her company reach the castle, In order to avoid gang rape, she pledges her alliance to Martin that night. that is as far as I got.There are two reasons why I could not continue. While the setting looks very medieval, dirty and crummy, not glamorous and luxurious, not for a moment does this feel like the feudal middle ages. The dialog is poorly scripted and some of it is just too contemporary, especially Hauer's. In a closely related matter, my second problem with Flesh and Blood is terrible acting. No body is believable, a couple of character come close but their roles are secondary, it is really the two leads who spoil the picture, Hauer and Leigh go together like peanut butter and mustard. You do not need to make it any further than I did to know that Flesh and Blood is a turkey, There is no History, no Drama, No emotion, and despite a couple of disguise attempts there is no originality either. I conclude with this hypothetical question, What does it take to make a decent, realistic Medieval movie?