Kingdom of Heaven

What a mess. I expected better from Ridley Scott, who of course gave us the very entertaining Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. Kingdom of Heaven is, in its basic plot, very similar to Gladiator, with the pageantry of pagan Rome replaced with the pageantry of medieval Christianity. In addition to that we are served up the warmed over hash of such stale stereotypes:as the Noble Muslim Warrior, the Bloodthirsty Christian Warrior, and the Stoic Warrior Who Doesn't Really Want To Be A Hero But Fights The Good Fight Anyway, While Clearly Seeing All The Controversy Swirling Around Him As Just Plain Nonsense. Which reduces the movie to, well, just plain nonsense.