NMR: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Man, is this film pure cheese. And leftover cheese at that considered it borrows heavily from other better films like The Mummy and National Treasure. If it had just been a rehash of those film, this might have been tolerable, but then it has to go and insult our intelligence by trying to infuse current political events into the storyline (i.e. a country is under attack for dealing weapons, there are debates about whether or not to invade a 'holy land', etc.). Nothing about this film is particularly creative and I found myself calling out plot points before they actually occured. Even when the film tries to emulate the video game that it is based off of, it's done in such a bland and uninspired way that most who have never seen or played the game before wouldn't think anything of it. The main hook of the film - the fact that a sword exists that allows the beholder to control time - is not used nearly enough. I will say that people like Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays the lead, and Alfred Molina do seem like they are having fun here; it's just too bad they had no business being cast in the film in the first place. Grade: C-