Spartan

Full of action and definitely suspenseful, really had me going the entire duration. Val Kilmer's character is pretty bad ass, and it really pays off in providing a lot of entertainment.

Very Good. A black-op agent is is tasked with finding the kidnapped daughter of a government official. This is great film-making with no back story and the plot unfolding scene by scene keeping the viewer on edge. The victim's true identity remains vague till the end adding to the tension. A classic full on cloak and dagger conspiracy plot with great action that only slightly stumbles near the end. An entertaining film featuring Val Kilmer's best performance to date. Highly Recommended.

It had some impressive cinematography but that couldn't hide the fact that this mediocre thriller is a mediocre thriller. The dialog simply feels odd and out of place for the context, the storyline on a whole just feels goofy with lots of throwaway characters you don't care about pouring their hearts out. Nothing's really bad per se and it's better than a lot of other thriller's I've seen but there's nothing all that impressive about it either.

Too many throwaway characters and too many unexplained coincidences and loose ends. Very weak writing, but the film still holds up as a serviceable thriller due to good direction and excellent pacing.

Mamet's super-spy thriller plays like a braniac's '24: The Movie', but it's so much better. It moves at a mile a second, never stopping to tell you what's happening. The mark of a great film? That you always know regardless. Kilmer carries it on the back of one of his best performances, but the real star is Mamet's odd-ball dialog. The plot is never clear until its over, and even then you're left putting pieces together. Throw in Al Bundy, Veronica Mars and Bill Macy and I'm in, every time.

"Spartan" is the story of a modern-day Spartan warrior played by Kilmer. His stiff portrait worked for me, and I appreciated the understated action.

This is a high drama action movie with a few hardcore scenes. The shoot and ask questions later investigation process is hard to do when the people you need to interrogate are shot dead. Some of the action is tense and exciting. The political coverup was shabby and the ending was abrupt. Val Kilner made a great hardass and Kristen Bell was still gorgeous. Worthwhile.

okay movie

Good flick with Val Kilmer and William H. Macy.

I am so in love with Mamet's words, and this gem has lots of them.

I was suprised that this was directed by David Mamet, who is normally pretty good. This was a bad film. The first part wasn't so bad moving along fairly briskly, but then the plot started jumping around, it was poorly paced, and once I started viewing it more critically, I saw the acting was terribly wooden, the script was just ridiculously overly stylised (and predictably everyone who helps Val Kilmer gets killed).

Kilmer's intense portrait of utter ruthlessness is the main selling point of otherwise baffling, confusing mystery-thriller, which never clearly establishes its plot and relies far too much on insider techie speak, which doesn't often translate well, if at all. The plot nevertheless maintains a degree of interest, and Mamet's dialogue is always fun to listen to, but a little more attention to storytelling may have been in order.

Mamet.

I wouldn't say this is a good film exactly, but I enjoyed it. It has a very good script and seems to make an effort to be believable given the subject matter. Val Kilmer does a great job.

watched it on dvd cant remember but think it was ok at best

Viewed March 2, 2021.

Carefully crafted by Mamet. Val Kilmer does ruthless very well. The only substantial minus for me was that the stereotypes were laid on a little (in other words extremely) thick.

Mamet is always a lot of fun, and there are some genuinely exciting action scenes. Political intrigue and Mamet dialogue is a good mix.

The 'twist' is visible miles off, and the rest of the plot is a paint-by-numbers exercise.

If there's a writer in this world more in love with himself than David Mamet, the guy is locked in a room somewhere with his pants down and his head between his legs, and he hasn't seen the light of day in several years.

Spartan is a just-about-passable thriller. I'm not sure if it's David Mamet's overly complicated and often weirdly inappropriate dialogue that's the issue, or Val Kilmer's inability to work with it, but something is definitely off. File under Bargain Basement Bourne.

A just above-average film that suffers from some wooden acting (mostly by lead Val Kilmer) and a script that takes a while to unwind and get going before taking off at a relentless pace towards the film's latter half. Spartan is the sort of film that's pretty good if it's on TV and you don't have much else to do, but not worth going out of your way to see.

A very underrated thriller - great plot, acting, dialogue - see it.

An odd cross between RONIN and WAG THE DOG, it might be argued that this portrays the asceticism of the search for truth (almost like Dumont's quasi-cop film L'HUMANITÉ, which I happened to see a couple of days beforehand), but to Mamet's usual spartan aesthetic is here added a clear kind of spartan fetish for martial values and disgust with what he seems to see as politico-sexual corruption (Lewinsky seems to have really bothered him). At its core lies a profound silliness.

This one does not have a great deal of action, but the tale is still interesting. Some of the dialogue requires a few seconds to process. The end feels anticlimactic.

Absolutely awesome. Unique, cerebral yet exciting thinking man's thriller. Don't you dare miss this one

I like this movie way more than I should. The dialogue is Mamet all the way through, but it does seem odd and unrealistic at times. Still though, the concept that the film's title is derived from, the subject matter, and the haunting score all combine to give me just what I want in an intelligent thriller. Plus, I do love me some Val Kilmer. Macy seems comically underused though. A nicely shot movie that Probably scoring it way higher than it deserves, but it captures my imagination in a big way

And I thought Oliver Stone was paranoid. The least interesting thing about Spartan is Mamet's pitch black cynicism, which isn't as disturbing as he intends, and in fact seems rather pat. Val Kilmer has drawn praise for his performance but to my eyes and ears he seemed uncomforatble in Mametian dialogue, which a seasoned vet like Bill Macy wears like skin. Kilmer can't quite get the snap to his line readings and he ends up sounding like a doll whose string you pull and out comes Mamet dialogue.

This is what James Bond movies should be like...lol

ger; mädchenhändler kidnappten die tochter des us-präsidenten und special agent scott soll sie retten, doch der einsatz wird abgebrochen und scott forscht alleine weiter.

Liked this quite a bit. Come on : we always wanted to see what Al Bundy would be like if he was playing Deep Throat.

David Mamet's dialogue leads the audience through this mysterious politically-charged thriller about a Spartan (Val Kilmer) or special secret service agent that works roguely for the president in ways that most common citizens could never understand. The film itself plays to the same audience: If you know what a Spartan is and does, then this film is definitely for you. If this is your first time hearing the phrase, you will probably be left confused and saddened by this terrific adventure/d

What the crap?! I love David Mamet. I love William H. Macy, Val Kilmer and Derek Luke. This movie sucks! It makes no sense, the plot is garbage, etc. What the crap?!

"Mamet makes movies for people who love hearing themselves talk." - Ed Gonzalez

Have you seen this girl? Where's the girl? Give us the girl! Ooh, girl! Who's that girl? The girl can't help it. Girl, you'll be a plot twist soon...

65.500

"Where's the girl?!" That's all what they were saying during this movie. Few brutal action scenes made it a worth of waste some time.

Mamet's stylized dialogue is delightful in many contexts, but in a movie whose plot already requires such a tremendous suspension of disbelief, it comes off as rather ridiculous. This is a decent thriller with some effective twists and it's easy to sympathize with the spirit of political cynicism, but it's hard to take this goofy worldview seriously.

Even a wooden stick has more charisma than Val Kilmer in this film. Kilmer is just walking around trying to talk/look cool. He's not. And what a waste of talent of William H. Macy. His role could have been much more, did they forget to tell him he is the villain of this film? It's boring. Even how the title is snuck in the film is just plain stupid.

horrible script, horrible acting

Boring, extremely dated, and fucking boring. Jesus Christ why does this look and feel like it was made the same year as lethal weapon 1 when it was made the same year of Kill Bill,Spider man 2, and Troy. I just dont get how a movie can look 15 years dated of its release date. Oh, and noone in this film can act to save their lives.

Not sure why, but I can watch this again and again, and I'm not really an action guy.

really smart thriller

"Where is the girl? The girl. Who took her? Who took the girl?"

Mamet's terse style has remained, but his pointedness has grown soft. Ignoring its pedigree, Spartan is a run-of-the-mill potboiler. The most interesting aspect is watching certain actors take on Mamet's distinctive dialogue, still as sharp and crisp as a Zippo lighter snapping shut. It tames Val Kilmer's natural hamminess and allows Kristen Bell to demonstrate that she's got impressive range that extends beyond the enthralling, endearing wit of a certain TV detective role.