Don't listen to the negative reviews

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is probably the second to worst of the series (the follow up Sharpes Justice nipping it at the post), and for a number of reasons. For starters the plot is nonsensical - the set-up of Sharpe is so laden with holes it's not even worth considering, especially when Maillot's body is going to turn up with freshly cut off, unbandaged fingers - as opposed to 3 weeks prior.Add to that the needless add-in of Janes money grabbing friend, and Jane's sudden shift from 'daughter of a saddler' saved from the clutches of some gormless upper class twit as chosen by her wicked uncle into high society mistress. Yes Sharpe breaks his promise, but only by a couple of hours....for that it costs him 10k, his wife and nearly his life. Jane goes from being a strong willed independent spirit to some kind of airhead, neurotic female straight out of a Jane Austen novel.Cornwell may have done wrote the book like that; I don't know, but for me it spoilt the series because I really couldn't stand Jane to start with. Then again it gave Sharpe the chance to bed another lady...Frederickson steals the show. The guy is a legend in his own lunch-hour, with false teeth and dashing hairdo, half a pair of eyes and saucy eye-patch he's the guy you are desperately wishing a bit of luck on - and you know he's too interesting to die.The Chosen Men have disappeared in this one. After gradually being whittled down over the last few films it was beginning to turn into something of a on-the-road comedy a la Hope and Crosby with Harper and Sharpe. It gets worse in the next one with no Frederickson.

Capt Fredrickson is a standup guy. Competent, loyal, unafraid. Maj Sharpe breaks his unspoken bond with Fredrickson. Too bad. A double heartbreak for the good Captain. He was a strong character, played well. It seems he will remain in France,post Napoleon. Sharpe's wife is a classic nit-nat who cannot make up her mind. She's also a fool to let others convince her to play games with her husband. So be it.

By now, we know the drill, Sharpe gets into trouble, and he and Harper have to fight to get out of it. It could start to get formulaic, but somehow it never does. The writers did an admirable job of editing Sharpe's fortress out of this one, although Wigram's reasons for calling Sharpe out are somewhat spurious. Fredrickson stomps all over Harper as sidekick-the-audience-most-wants-for-themselves, and Lucille is just lovely - although I don't think I can forgive her for not being straight with Fredrickson - she's a lot nicer in the book. Maillot deserved a bit more character development than he actually got too, but overall, not a bad effort. I really don't know what to make of Jane - she seems to have some weird deranged schizophrenic thing going on where one minute she's evil and the next confused. As much as I love Richard, I have to say he was outshone by Fredrickson in this one.

This outing for Richard Sharpe wants for little. Although there are no big battle scenes, it still looks good. Compared to the book, it follows pretty well (all the best Sharpe films do) and it is nice to see that Cornwell's story is not butchered, like in Gold. I haven't seen this movie for quite a while now but I enjoyed it when I did and if you are a Sharpe fan, which I darn well hope you are, then you should get to one of those really really good video stores and rent this title, along with the others. They are best watched in order... Rifles, Eagle, Company, Enemy, Honour, Gold, Battle, Sword, Regiment, Siege, Mission, Revenge, Justice, Waterloo.