Rating: PG-13
Length: 114 minutes

Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1

English, French, Spanish

This film picks up shortly after its predecessor (Elizabeth) left off. The Queen still has her enemies wanting her demise and her friends that insist that she marries and gives birth to an heir. The Catholic church wants her dead and enlists the help of the Spanish to help see this through while also using her sister, Mary Stuart, as a pawn. After all, if it's in the name of God, how could it possibly be wrong though it happens to include personal riches and power?

Even the director acknowledge that he could not do this film unless Cate Blanchett returned as the lead and he was correct. Fortunately Geoffrey Rush also returns as her chief of intelligence and friend. The rest of the cast is top-notch especially the additions of Clive Owen (portraying the free-loving adventurer) and Abbie Cornish (the Queens most trusted maiden). Throw in some incredible sets and costumes and you have a visually stunning film.

The director not only chose to change who her "love" interest would be but he took it to another level by incorporating a love triangle between the Queen, the debonair pirate/explorer and one of her maidens. There was so much that could have been accomplished with the political maneuvering between all of the different players (the Pope and the Spanish, her 1/2 sister her plots, the group of traitors in the city, the job her head of security was doing and the way he discovered plots, etc.) yet we're stuck with the director insistence that we not forget that Elizabeth is a woman; one simple look at Cate Blanchett ensures that even the dimmest of viewers knows that Elizabeth is a woman.

• Audio Commentary with Director Shekhar Kapur
• "The Reign Continues: Making Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
• "Commanding the Winds: Creating the Armada" Featurette
• "Inside Elizabeth's World" Featurette
• "Towers, Courts, and Cathedrals" Featurette
• Deleted Scenes

This is a fun movie with some great performances and some really cool ships. As with the original Elizabeth I was wanting more meat on my sandwich with fewer condiments. Since both films had the same director with the same vision, I learned to enjoy the condiments.

Shekhar Kapur   [Elizabeth]

Cate Blanchett - Queen Elizabeth I

[The Aviator, Bandits, Charlotte Gray, Elizabeth, Heaven, The Good German, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring/The Two Towers/Return of the King, The Missing, The Talented Mr. Ripley]

Abbie Cornish - Elizabeth Throckmorton

Rhys Ifans - Robert Reston

[Hannibal Rising]

Aimee King - Infanta

Susan Lynch - Annette

[From Hell]

Elise McCave - Laundry Woman

Penelope McGhie - Margaret

Stuart McLoughlin - Savage

Jordi Mollà - King Philip ll of Spain

[The Alamo (2004), Bad Boys II, Blow]

Samantha Morton - Mary Stuart

Clive Owen - Sir Walter Raleigh

[The Bourne Identity, King Arthur, Shoot 'Em Up, Sin City]

Eddie Redmayne - Thomas Babington

Geoffrey Rush - Sir Francis Walsingham

[Elizabeth, House on Haunted Hill (1999), Intolerable Cruelty, POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl/At World's End]

Adrian Scarborough - Calley

John Shrapnel - Lord Howard

[Gladiator, Troy]