Apocalypto!

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Why can no one stand Mel Gibson. Just because he made a movie about Jesus?? At least he is not like Tom Cruise Jumping on couches, saying he is inlove!
 
I just don't like Mel Gibson because he seems like an asshole to me. It has nothing to do with Jesus or the fact that he made a movie about him.

For the past 15 or so years, I've seen Mel Gibson on tv and read about him in interviews, and he comes off as an asshole in my opinion. It's just my perception. Sorry if I offended you, but yes, the movie does look good.

And for the record, I think Tom Cruise comes off as a douche too.
 
Justin24 said:
Why can no one stand Mel Gibson. Just because he made a movie about Jesus?? At least he is not like Tom Cruise Jumping on couches, saying he is inlove!



i hope his new movie is good

this plus

Terrence Malick's new world

may give us a different take on the new* land and European early contacts

i was not able to sit through all of the passion

there was some good film making there

the slo-mo kung fu fighting apostles were my first sign this movie was not "just like being there" as I heard many people say.


let's hope for more realistic portrayals in Apocalypto
 
Most of Mel Gibson's movies have been successful, he's been voted sexiest man and everyone who works for him tells him how great he is - of course he's got a big head!!! Everyone in Hollywood has big heads for the same reasons.... :D
 
"Apocalypto" surpasses "The Passion" in every way as a movie about pain, flagellation and wounding. The grotesqueries are almost numbing, and at some point they become laughable. But all the while, you're thinking, what's the point here? If "Apocalypto" was supposed to be about that transitional civilization, where is it? After two hours and several minutes of squirming and covering eyes, you start to think that "Apocalypto" exists just to show violence for itself. The point is lost.
 
'Apocalypto' Is More 'Mad Max' Than Mayan
Friday, December 01, 2006

By Roger Friedman

E-MAIL STORY RESPOND TO EDITOR PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
AP


'Apocalypto' Is More 'Mad Max' Than Mayan

With the subtlety of several thousand flying mallets and arrows, here comes Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," a two-hour plus torture-fest so violent that women and children will be headed to the doors faster than you can say "duck" when the film opens on Dec. 8.

Indeed, "Apocalypto" is the most violent movie Disney has ever released, with so much blood spurting out of orifices that even Martin Scorsese would blush.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see heads and hearts removed without anesthesia, then this is the movie for you. "Grey's Anatomy" it is not.

What it is, Gibson says, is the story of a civilization in transition, as the Mayans 500 years ago fought among themselves until visitors from Europe arrived by ship and spelled their doom.

(Story continues below)

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Unfortunately, though, that part of the movie lasts maybe three minutes and takes place at the very end.

"Apocalypto" really is a video game, a sort of "Survivor" set in what would become the Mayan ruins as we know them today.

The action is often cartoonish, and the dialogue — which is all spoken in some ancient dialect with subtitles — is often preposterous.

In one scene, after what seems like the umpteenth bloody killing, one Mayan quips to another and the translation is, "He's f—-ed."

Gibson directs some of the film like "Braveheart" and some of it like "The Three Stooges." There is little poetry to his imagination, so the hard work has to be done by veteran cinematographer Dean Semler.

Semler saves Gibson over and over, but not by much and not totally. The problem is that, unlike in "The Passion of the Christ," there is no noble goal here. The Mayans are merely fighting among themselves. There's no indication that the triumph by one side over another will achieve anything.

Gibson's reliance on Semler is as odd as his choice of the cinematographer. The pair worked together on "We Were Soldiers." But also on Semler's résumé are Kevin Costner's great work, "Dances with Wolves," which was similar in theme to "Apocalypto," and Costner's monumental flop "Waterworld." Unfortunately, "Apocalypto" falls more on the side of the latter than the former.

Semler's production is so shiny and perfect that his Mayans sometimes seem like they're in a Coca-Cola commercial. Instead of the dusty world of "Dances with Wolves," we get the high sheen of Kodak prints.

Sometimes, the result of this is a vivid portrait of death. For example, a jaguar eats a man's head, and masticates. Half-dressed Mayans are shot through the head, heart and chest with arrows and knifed sometimes without notice and almost always in the most gruesome ways possible. Heads roll and bounce, for real, down the long stairs of the Kukulcan Pyramid, or what we now regard the centerpiece of the Mayan ruins.

Not all of "Apocalypto" is awful. Rudy Youngblood gives an athletic performance as Jaguar Paw, the hero who must save his pregnant wife and child from warring factions after he hides them in a deep pit.

Youngblood is quite literally the only person who emerges from the movie unscathed, somehow not dying or requiring medical attention after sustaining injuries that would kill most men.

He almost succeeds in making Jaguar Paw a completely sympathetic figure, too, by giving him nearly no dialogue. But then Gibson and screenwriter Farhad Safinia let him jump the shark (or the jaguar, in this case) and make hoary proclamations to the artfully designed sky. Even Youngblood seems like he's going to wince with embarrassment.

Of course, "Apocalypto" arrives with a lot of baggage. Gibson — an admitted alcoholic who denies being anti-Semitic despite evidence to the contrary — is kind of a marked man.

He refuses to answer a lot of questions, and he is confining his publicity for the movie to safe havens with Disney and ABC, which the studio owns (I dare Jay Leno to ask him about this summer's incidents when he appears on that show on opening night).

But more than those questions, there are new ones: What kind of man is so interested in making this kind of violent movie? What motivates him?

"Apocalypto" surpasses "The Passion" in every way as a movie about pain, flagellation and wounding. The grotesqueries are almost numbing, and at some point they become laughable.

But all the while, you're thinking, what's the point here? If "Apocalypto" was supposed to be about that transitional civilization, where is it? After two hours and several minutes of squirming and covering eyes, you start to think that "Apocalypto" exists just to show violence for itself. The point is lost.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,233518,00.html
 
I wonder how the Jews killed the Mayans.

They start all of the wars you know..
 
Sounds like WAY to big a blood bath pour moi. I'll most definitely be passing on this one, thank you very much!
 
I won't be seeing this


all the reviews are pretty bleak


just one more extreem snuff film from Mel


I think I may spend my money on Blood Diamond, instead.
 
deep said:
I won't be seeing this


all the reviews are pretty bleak


just one more extreem snuff film from Mel


I think I may spend my money on Blood Diamond, instead.


Why not be your own critic? I wouldn't immediately dismiss it just because others are. You might like it.

Blood Diamond does seem intriguing. Plus, it has Jennifer Connelly. :love:
 
If it has Gibson's name working behind the scenes I'll be sure to watch it. As far as his anisemitic remarks, I couldn't care less he's not the president and can't affect me even if I were jewish.
 
greeneyedgirl said:
I'm looking forward to seeing it next wk on my birthday.

I know alot about Mayan history, so I'm interested in seeing a bit of it come to life.

Absolutly. I went to Tikal last year and it was amazing the pyramids they built. Savages?? Geniuses is more like it.

DSCN2548.jpg


DSCN2538.jpg

Two shots from Tikal, Guatemala.
 
Well I got back from the showing. Brilliant. Reminds me of a Terrence Malik Film. You will be suprised that its not as gory as the reviewers say it is.

I highly recommend it, put your differences aside on what you think of Mel. (Forgiveness is a big word) The language they spoke was beautiful also.
 
It's Violent out of a scale 1-10 I would say a 6. It's not as bad as the reviews put it out to be.
 
Justin24 said:
It's Violent out of a scale 1-10 I would say a 6. It's not as bad as the reviews put it out to be.

oh ok, I think most reviews I've read concentrate a lof on that part of the movie, I'll see it as soon as it opens in Mexico
 
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