It’s safe to say that Brian Cox isn’t alone when it comes to disliking the movie “Napoleon.” The film boasts a middling 57% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a muddled critical consensus that reads, “Ridley Scott is intent on proving the emperor has no clothes in ‘Napoleon,’ a slyly funny epic with bravura set pieces and a divided runtime that keeps it from outright conquering.”
Then there’s the people of France, who rose up in characteristically critical fashion to decry the film. According to a recap in the BBC, French outlet Le Figaro said the movie should be named “Barbie and Ken under the Empire,” and GQ’s French branch called the actors’ American and British accents — employed as they were fighting for their “home country” of France — “deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny.”
Much like Cox, Ridley Scott loves a good clapback, and he responded directly to the BBC with a critique of the French populace. “The French don’t even like themselves,” Scott said in response to the aforementioned jabs. “The audience that I showed it to in Paris, they loved it.”
Ultimately, nobody will ever know if Cox would have been better than Phoenix, but “Napoleon’s” middling reviews and reputation say all that’s needed. As for Cox, he definitely has a history of making absolutely absurd comments.