more reviews

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Apocalypto

So how batshit crazy is Mel Gibson? Apparently, the dude has some serious issues he needs to work through. Because as entertaining and well made as "Apocalypto" is, the movie is filled with all kinds of historical inaccuracies and too much violence. I'm no expert on Mayan history, so I won't really get into everything that Gibson got wrong, but if you're curious, Google "Apocalypto Historical Inaccuracies" and read away. I hope you have a while, because there's a lot of material to read through.

But beyond the historical and cultural inaccuracies, the movie is highly entertaining. It's one of the better action movies to come out in quite a while, so I have to give it props for that. For all of his craziness, Mel Gibson does know how to film a well-made action sequence.

But where Mel Gibson really lost me was in his over the top violence. I have the same problem with "Apocalypto" that I had with "The Passion of the Christ": there's so much violence, and it's filmed so intensely, that the message gets lost and muddled. I can appreciate the violence through the same eyes I use when I watch a slasher movie, but it's a little bit different with this movie. With slasher movies, the violence is usually very over the top and almost laughable. But with Gibson's movies, it's filmed very realistically. Fine, realistic violence isn't so bad in and of itself. But there's a few problems with the violence in his movies.

- There's just too much of it. In "Apocalypto" alone, we have not just beheadings, but first-person (as in you are the decapitated person, and see a first-person perspective) views of beheadings, clubbings, heads falling down the stairs of Mayan temples, headless bodies falling down the stairs of Mayan temples, Panthers eating faces off, people's hearts getting ripped out of their ribcages, snakes biting faces, arrows going through torsos, fields of sacrificed bodies,

- He sticks the camera on the violent acts and forces you to either watch it and squirm, or turn your head and cough in discomfort. And as I said, not only does he stick his camera on the violence, he leaves it there well past the point that any reasonable person would.

But as an action movie, "Apocalypto" is really fun and entertaining. But as historic epic, it leaves a little to be desired.

Oh, one more thing, it's time to end the whispering child as creepy omen cliche, which Mel used to cheesy effect in this movie.

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Children of Men

Opening Impressions: I thought "Children of Men" was a really great movie, and it made me think about what it would be like to live in a society on the verge of extinction, yet much of the movie seemed to be more objective than subjective. This isn't a big deal, in fact, it's point of view is one of the things that I dug about the movie, but for much of the movie, you're literally a passive observer to the horrific things the characters are going through, and are there with the characters step for step. Again, not a big deal, but it's a bit much for a first viewing. This is a movie that demands a second viewing if you're at all interested in engaging in a thorough discussion about the movie's themes.

Direction: I am completely impressed with Alfonso Cuaron's direction in the movie. Everything had a feeling of naturalism and believability, sometimes maybe even too much so. The violence in this movie is some of the most realistic movie violence that I've seen.

Acting: Clive Owen was brilliant in the movie. Clive Owen was one of the front runners in the most recent search for James Bond, and after seeing this movie I'm convinced that he made the right decision by refusing MI6 and choosing to do movies like his, but the movie also hit home that he would have been an incredible Bond as well. There were other good performances in the movie, but this really was his movie to carry, and carry it he did. His transformation from apathetic worker to dedicated activist was believable.

Music: I really liked all the musical choices in the movie. I don't remember what the score sounded like, but I remember liking all of the song choices that were made for the movie. Lots of politically charged music. You really can't go wrong with any movie that has Lennon playing over the closing credits.

Themes: The political themes that were brought up were really interesting and thought provoking. I like that the movie's message was no matter how bad things get, the good is always worth fighting for.

Closing thoughts: Not exactly the most accessible movie, but the movie really got my mind to thinking about our current world situation and all that's going on. Brilliantly conceived, directed, and acted.

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We Are Marshall

Ultra short: Overall, a very sweet movie, but not nearly subtle enough to be able to pull off the emotionality that it wanted to convey. Both Matthews were good, though Fox is definitely better on the television screen. When compared to McConaughey, Fox seemed...well, he seemed like a television actor. I don't know if that's because LOST is so good and he's so good in LOST or what, but I've heard from a few people that they had similar reactions to his performance. The movie wanted to be on par with "Rudy," but I felt it fell way short of the goal.

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namaste