Richard Fleischer's THE VIKINGS vs Marc Forster's QoS

Which is better?

I'm a big fan of those old school guys like Kirk Douglas and especially Ernest Borgnine, and any film that features Frank Thring is automatically improved by his presence. Of course Janet Leigh is always easy on the eyes as well. Richard Fleischer is also a good solid director - I was impressed by 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and MR. MAJESTYK is still one of my favorite Charles Bronson flicks! The on-location shooting in Norway (courtesy of master cinematographer Jack Cardiff) is a plus as well. So it seems THE VIKINGS should be a great film, right? Well, not quite. In fact it's fairly average. Lots of gung-ho behavior from our Norse heroes, lots of fighting and drinking and rowdiness, some pretty cool scenes here and there, but overall a fairly underwhelming experience, especially for a large-scale late 50s epic. BEN-HUR or SPARTACUS this ain't. I know those 2 are a tall order but it can't even compete with THE ROBE or DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS. I suppose I'm at least impressed with that glass eye that Douglas had to wear - ouch! That had to be some real hard contact lens.

QoS, on the other hand, is a subpar Bond film, and yet at the end of the day it IS a Bond film, featuring a cool opening (minus the editing), a good Arnold score, and a few cool set pieces here and there. Plus a solid effort from Craig himself. And Judi Dench is always a plus.

So for me QoS is the winner here.

Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!