Film review: Cleopatra (PG) - Reviews - Films - The Independent Joseph L Mankiewicz's 1963 folie de grandeur was a legend even before its own lifetime. No movie in history had been heralded with such pre-release clamour - and no movie could survive it. This digitally remastered version lends a handsome burnish and blaze to the colour, but that's on the level of refurbishing Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Why enhance a fake? The movie is not about the tragic romance of Antony and Cleopatra; it's about the prizefight-cum-love match between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, standing ego to ego in their absurd finery. Forget Actium; this is Hollywood's battle royal. And, like certain terrible movies down the ages, it's impossible to tear your eyes away.