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Arabian Nights (2000)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
7/20
7/20:
The 2000 film version of Arabian Nights is too much, shouldn't have been three hours long, and is an excuse to
show off untold number of costumes, special effects, and sets.
This snoozefest took me almost two weeks to complete, and I couldn't watch more than twenty minutes without taking a mental
break. I'm telling you: Arabian Nights was so boring that I would play it before my bedtime because I knew I could
get a good night's sleep this way.
Basically, this one is about a mad insomniac sultan who has an unquenchable thirst for something that resembles TV and ends
up winning a grand sword battle against his estranged brother's army by transforming an element from each story into something
tangible for warfare. So...am I supposed to be stupid or what?
Speaking of stories, I can't help but be bothered by the anachronisms. The present-day setting seems 8th century
or thereabouts, but Islam wasn't yet a religious force; hence, there's no need to place references this ubiquitously.
Similarly, there's a combination of Moroccan and Turkish locations, but the former is to the west of North Africa and
the latter is the most northern country of the Middle East. Yemen is also seen but is actually located all the way to
the south. Thus, how can the people in the film be in all of these places at once?
Having been prominently shown in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
Petra, which is located in Jordan, had declined too much during
the 4th century before it was totally abandoned by the 12th century. Complemented by the sight of Terracotta
Army (which dates back to the 3rd century BC but not discovered until 1974, making it impossible for people
in the Middle East to know anything about it), "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" is set somewhere in the Mongol Empire among the
Chinese, but pray tell me, what does the title Arabian Nights supposed to indicate?
Despite the low video quality that took me a while to get used to, I'm going to be generous by giving the film a rating of
'4' because everybody put in a lot of effort to make it a sweeping spectacle, hence the $30 million budget which is huge
for a TV miniseries. In that respect, the production values are first-rate all the way through; unfortunately, the stories,
which keep jumping around, never grab my attention, no matter how lavish the production sets and costumes are. At the same
time, the acting is generally fine.
All in all, more than anything, Arabian Nights is a children's film, but If I was a kid, I would've been bored out of
my mind.