Review: Apocalypto


Set in the ancient Mayan age (presumably around the 1500s), warrior Rudy Youngblood is living a relatively humble existence, with a loving wife (Dalia Hernandez) who is pregnant with their second child. This happy, hunter-gatherer sort of existence is soon shattered when a war-minded tribe (led by nasty Raoul Trujillo) invade the village to torture, rape, and kill everyone in sight. Youngblood manages to lead wife and child to a safe hiding place (a big hole in the ground), but soon he is captured and set to be filleted in some kind of ancient ritualistic sacrifice. How will he escape and rescue his wife and kid? The bizarrely named Morris Birdyellowhead (!) plays Youngblood’s wise, respected warrior father.

 

Bloody, exciting, and picturesque 2006 Mel Gibson (“Braveheart”, “The Passion of the Christ”, “The Man Without a Face”) flick is like an ancient, visceral variation on “The Most Dangerous Game”. It starts out looking like it might be a little more thoughtful than that (it’s not dumb, though), but for what it is, it works. It’s more accessible than “The Passion” at any rate and no less noble as a film if you ask me (OK, so seeing a guy’s face mangled by a jaguar isn’t exactly high art, but it sure is something!).

 

Gibson certainly knows his way around a muscular and thrilling action scene. The film is essentially an extended chase, and for once, it’s all shot really well, instead of the usual MTV hack-job where you can’t see anything. Also, star Youngblood is an imposing and engaging lead, and the cinematography by Aussie Dean Semler (“Razorback”, “Waterworld”, “Dances With Wolves”) is stunning, filmed in Mexico.

 

Scripted by Gibson and Farhad Safinia, this isn’t exactly the most thoughtful or positive view of Mayan history, but it does provide some insight into why ancient cultures ended up failing. And let’s face it, most of us have no idea what the Mayan civilisation was like, so it’s not such a bad thing that Gibson has simplified things a bit, really.

 

Rating: B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more