Russell Crowe has made some big movies in his career, but when it comes to sheer scale, it's likely none are bigger than Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The 2003 film based on the novels of Patrick O'Brian was a massive seafaring epic. However, what it was not was a massive blockbuster film. While the movie has its action sequences, it is ultimately a character driven story, and so for some it apparently comes across a little on the dull side, but Russell Crowe has some pretty strong feelings about that.
Recently, somebody decided to take to Twitter to call Master and Commander a boring ,movie, claiming that they actually use it as a sleep aid. The person went so far as to tag Russell Crowe himself in the tweet, and if the goal was to get a response, well, they succeeded. Russell Crowe retweeted the comment along with his own opinion. He finds the film to be "brilliant" in no uncertain terms and basically calls anybody who doesn't appreciate it a child who's unable to handle a movie for adults. Check it out.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the responses to Russell Crowe's tweet are much more positive regarding Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The movie has a strong critics and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating that a lot of people feel much better about the film than this person. It was also nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and it won two, including the award for cinematography, which Crowe specifically called out as being excellent.
While Master and Commander might look like it's similar to Pirates of the Caribbean without looking too close, that's far from the case. While the movie is set during the Napoleonic War, the ship combat is not the focus of the films. It's a character drama and so, I suppose if you were expecting something else, then it might seem boring. If you thought you were getting Gladiator, you would be disappointed.
And if nothing else, Russell Crowe is right on the money when it comes to the two elements he calls out as being special. The cinematography and the score are absolutely excellent. They're worth checking out on their own, but i would think the rest of the movie is at least good enough to keep most people paying attention.
The movie has enough fans that there were hopes for a sequel once. Patrick O'Brian wrote several novels in the same series that could have been adapted, and while Master and Commander did well enough both critically and commercially, it was not a massive hit. It was also quite expensive, costing $150 million to make and making about $210 million, which wasn't a big enough spread to trigger a sequel easily. And if one hasn't happened yet, it seems quite unlikely now. Though, since the film was made by Fox, that would make it a Disney decision now
