This week’s Cinemavino brings a new format.  Starting with this episode, we will draw movie title out of a hat, drink lots of good wine, and discuss that movie at length.  For this go-around, we drink a fantastic Merlot from the Acre winery and screen a 90s chestnut, The 13th Warrior.

Based on a novel by Michael Crichton, Warrior was a troubled production from the get-go.  As an action-centered period epic, the budget was already going to be high.  But when preview audiences declared that it sucked deep-fried monkey ding-dongs, that meant lots of reshoots.  And that meant even more cost.  Some reports have The 13th Warrior‘s price tag at over $150 million.  And it’s still pretty rough to watch.  Parts of it even look TV movie-cheap.

Full disclosure:  This movie is a Travis Budd staple.  He loves it, mainly for the Beowulf references and the rainy weather.

Anyway, sit back and enjoy another episode of Cinemavino.