What ultimately grounds the film is the development of the relationships between the men within the Alamo, namely Travis, Bowie and Crockett. The script (co-written by director John Lee Hancock, Leslie Bohem and Stephen Gaghan) struggles to make these ‘American heroes’ real, flawed individuals, and their respective portrayers manage to pull it off despite obvious dialogue and situations. Thornton especially is able to convey the measure of a simple Tennessee man who is forced to face his own mortality within the realm of his celebrity (a far cry from Crockett’s previous screen incarnations, most notably John Wayne’s bloated 1960 vanity project and Disney’s own low-rent Davy Crockett at the Alamo), while Patric, who excels at playing fringe loners, finds a role he can really sink his teeth into with the drunken, grief-stricken Bowie. And Wilson, a veritable big screen newcomer despite an impressive background in theater (Tony Award-nominated turns in The Full Monty and Oklahoma!, plus his acclaimed work in HBO’s recent Angels in America adaptation), holds his own, much like his character does.

Despite its sprawling battle scenes and epic scope, it’s the performances of these three actors that I will remember from this Alamo.

Coming Soon in Toon Talk:

• A sort of True Life Adventure for the new millennium, Sacred Planet brings the beauty and wonder of our world to IMAX and other large format screens April 22^nd.
• The long awaited ‘third wave’ of Walt Disney Treasures DVDs finally arrives May 18^th: Mickey Mouse in Living Color Volume 2 (21 shorts, up to and including Runaway Brain in its video debut), The Chronological Donald Volume 1 (35 shorts from 1934 to 1941), Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond (six nostalgic episodes featuring vintage Ward Kimball animation and Walt’s introduction of EPCOT) and, last but certainly not least, Walt Disney: On the Frontlines, a collection of rarely seen shorts from the infamous ‘war years’, including the Oscar-winning Der Fuehrer’s Face and the full-length feature Victory Through Air Power.
• Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz are joined by John Cleese, Julie Andrews and Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots in DreamWorks’ Shrek 2, the sequel to the blockbuster Oscar-winner, opening May 21^st.

And Coming Soon from Buena Vista Home Video:

• April 13^th: The songs of the former Beatle get the animated treatment with Paul McCartney: The Music and Animation Collection. Also: just in time for the April 16^th premiere of Volume 2, the DVD debut of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1, starring Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu and Splash’s Daryl Hannah.
• April 20^th: Eddie Murphy brings home all your ‘grim grinning ghost’ favorites in the DVD debut of The Haunted Mansion. Also: The complete first season of ESPN’s controversial drama, Playmakers, and the romantic comedy The Third Wheel, starring Denise Richards, Luke Wilson and Ben Affleck.
• April 27^th: Oscar-winning director James Cameron goes back to Titanic with Ghosts of the Abyss, a thrilling documentary originally shown in IMAX 3-D, making its DVD debut in a two-disc special edition.