The Road to El Dorado

Day 21/192-The Road to El Dorado: Starring Kenneth Brannagh and Kevin Kline

Having just made my way through the Uncharted games for the Playstation 3, this grabbed my fancy from that old familiar friend: Sky Anytime.

The Road to El Dorado sees idiot con-men Tulio and Miguel (Kline and Brannagh) as they win a map to the fabled city of gold, "El Dorado" in a backstreet game of dice. When it is discovered they are cheating, they are forced to flee and find themselves on a boat and are told when it shores they will become slaves for the rest of their lives. So they jump off on a raft (stealing a horse in the process) and make a break for it.

Just as they are about to give in, the raft turns up on the beach, in El Dorado. When the locals find them, Tulio and Miguel are braced for death, but the citizens of El Dorado are convinced that the two men are in fact Gods, and must be worshiped. But the high-priest has a feeling that their new Gods may not be who they claim to be, given their lack of enthusiasm for human sacrifice.



I know that no-one really wants to see my thoughts on El Dorado but I can't afford to waste time on films and not reviewing them, and either way it's actually quite a good film.

Tulio and Miguel are nothing if not likable. Classic movie double-act material but neither has much depth, for the whole movie to revolve around the two of them is a rather big ask, too much of an ask at times, but they have the charisma factor to pull it off for the most part.

The whole film though enjoyable just seems to play out like a TV Movie with a lack of real spectacle, and little to nothing in originality. Unless you count the obvious gay undertones in the film.



Now that all sounds bad, but it's really not, it's just not, great. It is funny and none of the characters do anything unexpected, the film turns out exactly the way you would expect, but it's still enjoyable to watch that happen. I wouldn't be shouting from the rooftops that you should watch this film, but you could do a lot worse.

If you liked Pocahontas or Aladdin, you'd probably enjoy this, just so long as you know it won't change your life, and I'm sure you do.

6/10