Regarding the Axis powers of WWII, we have always been willing to cut the Italians a big old break. The Japanese pulled a sneak attack on us at Pearl Harbor, and the Germans were responsible for the holocaust, but we like to think that the Italians were basically good people who just got carried away by Mussolini's speeches. And so, an actual incident during the war, when the Italians teamed up with the Greeks to fight against their former allies, the Germans, fits right in with our disposition to grant the Italians favorable treatment.In the movie, the Italian soldiers that occupy a Greek island have not seen any real action, but that is not surprising, because I have never seen an Italian soldier kill an American in a World War II movie. Moreover, they don't seem to care about the war. They just want to sing opera. Isn't that nice? The Greeks also seem to like the Italians better. Nobody seems to have a problem with the fact that Palagia is obviously in love with an Italian officer, Captain Corelli, and even has sex with him; but another girl, who just gives a German officer a friendly kiss on the cheek, is hanged by the Greeks for being a traitor.Reality or no reality, the decision by the Italians to fight with the Greeks against the Germans rather than simply handing over their arms when Mussolini surrenders turns out to be a big mistake, because except for Corelli, they are all slaughtered by the Germans for being traitors. But then, that only makes us like the Italians even more.

I voted two instead of zero because the island is wonderful and I grudgingly admit that I really appreciated the camera. But story-wise? Why the hell did they even bother using the name of the book when the only thing they used was names and a very, very crude initial settings? The amazing transformation of Mandras from every-day village lad to the bottom pit of human scum - gone. Carlo, a whole storyline of beauty, sorrow and prevailing humanity - reduced to twenty seconds of valiant dying that leaves us wondering why (and why the hell so long?). The book was about life first and foremost, and all its aspects - love, death, survival, cruelty, kindness, nonsense and magic etc. This movie is a weird watered down love story of a highly improbable Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz (who's actually OK despite her Spanish accent :-) ) with all the rawness and irresistibility of the forces of the human heart and twisted minds vanished. I was left wondering why the hell did they even fall in love, I didn't feel their love at all, the movie was full of loose ends and weirdnesses - what the hell was Mandras doing popping in and out all the time? Meaningful parts of the book were discarded while bullshit and inconsistent though nicely hollywoody passages added... OK, it is a bitter diatribe but I actually registered IMDb to voice my disgust, so there you go. If you didn't read the book and liked the movie, read the book, you'll be blown over. If you didn't read the book and hated the movie, read the book, you'll be blown over. Howgh.

Okay, I finally just got through the whole thing. I wanted to see this movie because I knew it had musical connotations and was about being in love with Penelope Cruz. Which isn't hard to do.When there is a good script and good story you would think that "top" actors like Nic Cage and Christian Bale would seriously buff up on their local talk. If you are going to do a foreign movie in English with an accent of the local language then you got some serious work to do. Nic apparently didn't do enough training for his accent. He goes from one sentence saying something like: hey man, surfs up dude!, to aye mama mia, no hay pizzaria. If you pay attention to his accent it is all over the place.If you watch an A actor like Leo Dicaprio, he will seriously study the local vernacular and slang and bring it into his character and make the audience believe it. Look at his accents in Blood Diamond or Gangs of New York. He nails it. These two guys Nic and Christian completely blow it. It gets better towards the end of the film but come on guys, do your homework. Jeezus, it is so distracting and hard to get into a movie where the characters have clearly not done their homework.My overall feeling about this movie is very conflicted. I loved the story and loved the classical guitar piece that Nics' character recorded but, the accent thing I obviously cannot ignore. They should have done this movie with real Italians, Spaniards, and Germans and kept it real, or otherwise brought in an actor that does his homework like Leo Dicaprio. So there.. That is what I think, take it or leave it....

I actually was looking forward to this movie. After reading a number of reviews before the release, it sounded like a genuinely nice film, one that was beautifully filmed and one with an interesting cast (Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz and John Hurt.)Well, it might have been all of those things BUT it is so boring that I defy almost anyone to sit through this in its entirety and keep attention. Also, Cage's attempt at speaking with an Italian accent is embarrassingly bad. He's such a good actor that I cringed every time he spoke in this film. 'Disappointing" seems to be the most-often word used by reviewers here to describe this film, and I totally agree.I guess it didn't take long for word to get out about how bad this movie was because, like Cage's accent, it did not do well.