Sean Bean returns as the ever intrepid Richard Sharpe in this latest reworking of Bernard Cornwell's earlier books. Shot on 35mm this film, and the previous film from a few years earlier, "Peril" has z different look and feel to it, but regardless we get to see Sharpe's continued exploits and share in his adventures. The production values are higher than ever. The Indian productions seem to have been taken up a notch or two from the films shot in the 90s. Sun drenched scenery, both plush and arid, they're a far cry from the relatively frigid realms of the winter locations in Spain and Portugal. For whatever reason the direction feels a little different as well, but ironically enough seems to hearken back to the feeling that the earlier Sharpe films gave the audience. There's a sense of adventure, intrigue and the exotic, as well as the romantic.Sharpe is presented with some internal challenges as well as a plethora of external ones. Teresa, though long gone since the fourth film, is still very much alive in Sharpe's memory. To find out why, you have to see the film.If I had one critique it's that Sen Bean, being a smoker, has aged prematurely. Oh sure he's old, but his smoking habit doesn't help sell him as the dashing hero type. He looks ragged, which, ironically enough, actually helps accentuate the character. Still, it would behoove him to toss the cigarettes and add some years to his life.Still, it's a solid installment. A bit longer than usual, and it does take liberties with some of the characters, but it's a decent watch.Give it a whirl and enjoy.

As usual I enjoyed every single minute of this Sharp adventure! So what if Sean Bean is a little older, it happens to us all and time has moved on since Waterloo!! Once again I gasped at his heroics, wished I was one of the buxom females he saves and cried when he and Harper glance back to the sound of 'Over the Hills and Far Away'.I do love every single Sharp but I do prefer the Napoleonic War Episodes (these would get a 10)as due to there being 14(?) episodes there is more time to attach yourself and enjoy the characters. Sharps Waterloo was my particular favourite but I did sob!! I feel it is time to dust down my Sharp Video collection and watch them all again with my two daughters , they are in for a treat, (though they have told me they don't want to)!!! Tough!!

Oh dear, what a let down this was. The two redeeming features were the scenery (courtesy of the Indian Tourist Board)and some apparently authentic dialogue. On British TV the programme was shown in two parts, the first of which dragged, though there was some reasonable action in the second. I suspect that the influence of Sharpe author Bernard Cornwell was confined to providing the characters, because the plot borrowed countless clichés from Westerns of the 1950s. There were several insults to one's intelligence.The most notable was Sharpe's supposedly inspirational speech to the soldiers and villagers as they awaited the final onslaught by the baddies. The references to Napoleon and Waterloo would have meant something to the few remaining British soldiers, but nothing at all to the Indian troops and villagers - even supposing they (the latter especially) understood English. Then there was Harper curiously being cured of kidney stones and Simmerson's remarkable recovery from delirium and his sudden warmth for Sharpe (and where did he get his smart general's uniform from, after the pursued soldiers and civilians had been carrying next to nothing after crossing the river). The portrait of Sharpe's daughter in the locket looked more like a colour photograph than a painting.Sean Bean was beginning to show his age, seemed to go through the motions with his acting and was not at all an inspiring leader.

They criticized this episode because Daragh O'Malley had got a bit fatter. And maybe Sean Bean had a few more lines on his face - well, how many wives has be tried to please - apparently without success!.But it's wonderful. Heroism, humanity, and fellow feeling are all there just as they are in the entire series. There's some closure for fellow aficionados; Hakeswill (in a sense) is laid to rest, and Simmerson ends the fool he always was.Bernard Cornwell is an excellent author, and Sean Bean / Daragh O'Malley and this entire cast has brought it all to wonderful viewing.Wanna be a soldier!