User Reviews

Though I personally much prefer Sharpe's Napoleonic series to these Indian installments (Challenge and Peril), but I still find the latest one Sharpe's Peril quite entertaining and really very well watchable.

OK, I wish the Indian installments were much closer to the Bernard Cornwell's books, that is if they happened in due time (before Napoleonic wars) and order (somehow in Challenge and Peril they've mixed as much from Indian set of books as they possibly could, though not always for good), but it is still a very great Sharpe's adventure. Just as usual - some quest for good old Sharpe, some girl's heart to win over, and some baddies to defeat. If that is still not enough a reason for you to watch this Sharpe's adventure, maybe a magic word - Simmerson - would do the trick. It did worked for me (And thAaaat was soooo great!). And the very last encounter of Sharpe and Simmerson! One should not miss it, that I'm sure of.

While not quite as romantic as the previous feature film, SHARPE'S CHALLENGE, this action-packed adventure is a wonderful farewell to the bad boy English rifleman and his colorful friends and enemies.

Personally, I would have ended the series at the end of SHARPE'S CHALLENGE, when Sharpe has the opportunity to marry a loyal, courageous, and truly stunning general's daughter and become a general himself in the famed East India Company.

But instead, Sharpe is just trying to get home, and he is roped into escorting a spoiled French beauty through the Indian countryside, and villains are after her, and one thing just leads to another till pretty soon Sharpe is like Moses leading dozens of castaways in search of safety and a new beginning.

Where CHALLENGE had the feeling of an Arabian Nights adventure, with most of the action among Indian palaces and Royalty, PERIL is more rugged and down to earth, with a virtual "wagon train" journeying through hostile territory like an old fashioned American Western. There are battles every ten minutes and sword fights every five minutes. Sharpe's followers include a lot of Western types familiar from movies like STAGECOACH and MAJOR DUNDEE. The useless missionary, the plucky pregnant woman, the loyal Indian companion, the drunken or lazy troopers, all have their parts to play.

What lifts the story above Western territory, however, is the way in which Sharpe himself is forced to look for closure to his personal dramas. Some of his most deadly enemies reappear (or their sons do) and there are some unexpected discoveries on all sides. The most poignant scenes in the story all revolve around Sharpe coming to terms with past regrets and resolving conflicts. All of it was wonderful, even if Sharpe's French blonde love interest in PERIL isn't quite as demure or winning as English blonde love interest in CHALLENGE.

But both movies are Sharpe classics, both great farewells to a true hero!

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.

I gave this a 7 rating, because it was Sharpe, but I really have to wonder why they bothered to make the last two films. Sharpe went out with a glorious bang in Sharpe's Waterloo, and it should have remained that way. Instead, two films set 3 years after Waterloo were made about 10 years after, with a dashingly athletic star showing the ravages of a cigarettes and beer diet. To add insult to injury, whereas the younger Sharpe was usually clean shaven and his hair while tousled, was relatively shiny,the 'three years older' Sharpe was unkempt, unshaven and his hair looked like a badly hacked horse hair wig. Gone was the virile handsome superstud who made the ladie's hearts beat faster. We are asked to accept that three years later was a middle aged man resembling a has-been pugilist with a drinking problem.

OK, that is a petty quibble, but it does lead to more questions. As the India films were not from the books but independently scripted based on earlier Sharpe novels, and given the actors natural aging, why did they not set them at least 10 to 15 years after Waterloo? The British were still in India and Sharpe by then would be in his late 40's or early 50's.

Another point to ponder from watching the 'making of' documentary, was why did they film it in such a dreary part of India which they kept telling us was in the middle of nowhere, with the scorching temperatures of March/April causing the actors to suffer in their heavy woolen costumes. Why then did they not find a location in the hills where it would have been cooler and the scenery more attractive? British India was concentrated in the North West region which borders modern Pakistan. Why have the actors dressed in heavy wool uniforms when they could have been made from brushed cotton, which would have been more comfortable and would have looked authentic on film? I grant that the outdoor scenes would have been uncomfortable, but surely the indoor scenes could have been filmed in an air-conditioned studio in Mumbai.

I could go on picking apart the decisions, but overall, I feel that Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril were an attempt to milk the the cow until it ran dry, and an unforgettable series should have been left to stand alone.

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!

My wife and me are big fans of the series so tuned in this latest 2 parter with anticipation. Unfortunately as the story began to unfold we we felt that that we had been here before. By the end we felt disappointed with the outcome.

Although the scenery was magnificent, the story itself just dragged and it was just too clichéd. You just knew what was going to come next...sorry but it's time to draw a close on the TV adventures of Richard Sharpe.

I just wish Captain Fredrickson and the chosen men could have magically appeared to give us a break from the Sharpe and Harper show!

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!!

Sean Bean and Daragh O'Malley return as Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper in another brilliant Sharpe movie!

Although I do very much miss Hagman and Harris fighting alongside Sharpe and Harper, this adventure in India still has the essence of a good old Sharpe movie. We have a beautiful woman, the bad guy, an old 'friend' Simmerson and of course a good few twists and turns that keep us watching.

Yes, some people may complain that Sharpe has too many lines in his face or Harper has a few too many gray hairs on his head, but I love it! It makes it feel like I'm following them throughout events in their whole lives, not just a chapter of it. Even though the years may be climbing on our beloved actors, I do hope they decide to make another few movies or at least one last movie to tie up loose ends such as finding Sharpe's daughter.

Although it may not be the best of the Sharpe series, it's definitely another brilliant addition!

Sharpe and Harper are still in India and have been asked by the governor to perform one last task before they leave. They are to escort a Frenchwoman to her fiancée, a Major serving at an outpost. Sharpe agrees, little knowing he is walking into a rebellion with the instigators quite close to home.

Sharpe's Waterloo seemed the perfect way to end the series so I was disappointed and apprehensive when Sharpe's Challenge was released nine years later. To my surprise, however, Sharpe's Challenge turned out to be very good. It retained much of the qualities of the previous episodes.

Sharpe's Peril follows roughly the same plot as Sharpe's Challenge - set in India, rebellion in progress, some elements close to home - but isn't as solid, plot-wise. Moreover, it does now feel that the producers are flogging a dead horse.

It's not terrible and is reasonably watchable but is certainly not in the same league as the previous Sharpe episodes. Thankfully the producers finally called it curtains after this episode. The series' trajectory was certainly downwards after this one.

An average followup to a great series from the 90s. Sean Bean isn't quite able to muster the dark passion we saw from him in the old series and his new comrades are the most 1 dimensional lazy choices in terms of casting and writing. His old crew had strong personalities which the writers developed well making each one unique. In this new one they just cast a black guy, a fat guy and a boy to show his team is diverse, lazy.

The episode hits the right marks with a damsel in distress, a dastardly villain, a traitor in the ranks and incompetent upper-class officers blundering around with the entire outcome of the episode in the end resting solely on Sharpe and his sheer resourcefulness. Overall though I felt some of the energy and charm of the original though we're definitely absent, and Seam Bean was starting to look a bit too old by this point.

This film picks up where Sharpe's Challenge left off - Sharpe and Harper are en route to Madras. The team run across a baggage train of the East India Company that is traveling through a very rough and hostile territory. Bandits, lead by Chitu, are out to rob the train. When the robbers attack the train, Sharpe and Harper are on the scene to stop them. Despite all this action, Sharpe still finds time for romance.

6/10.