Apocalypto
Length: Single
Studio: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Rated: R
Website: http://apocalypto.movies.go.com/
Release Date: 2006-12-08
Cast: Dalia Hernandez, Mayra Serbulo, Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Rudy Youngblood
Director: Mel Gibson
Screenwriter: Mel Gibson, Farhad Safinia
Music Score: James Horner
WorkNameSort: Apocalypto
Our Rating: 1.50
Apocalypto, Mel Gibson's labor of love about the final days of Mayan civilization, opens with a substantial quote: 'A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.â?� Is it a story of a Biblical apocalypse? A probing look at civil strife that history and the movies have neglected? An allegory for Iraq? Try a thoughtless Hollywood actioner crossed with a glorified snuff film. Which is fine, if Gibson would admit this crass film's true calling; instead, he expects viewers to worship his trash at the altar of art. Gibson is a shallow Sunset-Strip showman who wants us to believe he's a profound cinematic philosopher. He weighs his slight story down with Greek mythological allusions and attempts at spiritual transcendence, but his formalism as director and co-screenwriter has all the intelligence and originality of a direct-to-video Van Damme film. For all its heavy-handed gravitas, Apocalypto is an insulting, whitewashed fake. The scares are cheap and pathetic and the comic relief wouldn't be out of place on Jackass.
Length: Single
Studio: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Rated: R
Website: http://apocalypto.movies.go.com/
Release Date: 2006-12-08
Cast: Dalia Hernandez, Mayra Serbulo, Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Rudy Youngblood
Director: Mel Gibson
Screenwriter: Mel Gibson, Farhad Safinia
Music Score: James Horner
WorkNameSort: Apocalypto
Our Rating: 1.50
Apocalypto, Mel Gibson's labor of love about the final days of Mayan civilization, opens with a substantial quote: 'A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.â?� Is it a story of a Biblical apocalypse? A probing look at civil strife that history and the movies have neglected? An allegory for Iraq? Try a thoughtless Hollywood actioner crossed with a glorified snuff film. Which is fine, if Gibson would admit this crass film's true calling; instead, he expects viewers to worship his trash at the altar of art. Gibson is a shallow Sunset-Strip showman who wants us to believe he's a profound cinematic philosopher. He weighs his slight story down with Greek mythological allusions and attempts at spiritual transcendence, but his formalism as director and co-screenwriter has all the intelligence and originality of a direct-to-video Van Damme film. For all its heavy-handed gravitas, Apocalypto is an insulting, whitewashed fake. The scares are cheap and pathetic and the comic relief wouldn't be out of place on Jackass.
