The Messenger: Joan Of Arc (1999)

I love Luc Besson, and I love Milla Jovovich... but JOAN OF ARC is just dreadful. Both director and star find themselves way out of their depth in unfamiliar waters, and the result feels like a terribly expensive hack that drags on forever (in its 158 minute "international" form).

Luc Besson is an inventive and visually interesting director, but his style proves totally inappropriate for a historical epic that takes itself so terribly seriously. The camerawork and the performances he elicits don't fit with the subject matter, and the dry script rarely manages to evoke any sympathy for the characters. Battle sequences should be spectacular, but feature bad gore effects and terrible camera motions that make the movie feel more like a cheap TV production.

If you want historical epic, check out the Korean war movie Musa instead (1000 times a better movie). Let's just try to forgive JOAN OF ARC as an embarrassment Besson had to make.