December 19, 2006

Movie Review: Apocalypto

My wife and I ventured to the local cinaplex on Sunday (a rare event for us) to see Mel Gibson's new release "Apocalypto". If you can say one thing about Gibson's film making style it is his penchant for realism. If you found yourself squeamish during the crucifixion scenes in "The Passion", "Apocalyto" may be too much for you. Many scenes are bloody, brutal and graphic.
Gibson's use of the native language was unique and the subtitles surprisingly limited, letting the action tell the story.
As for Oscar quality, it was every bit as good as "Braveheart" in realism and story line although at one point the story turned into a long predictable chase scene.
The choice of the title was not revealed until the final scene and it was my astute wife that had to point out to me the symbolism in the ending. She also commented that the suspense kept her riveted and squeezing my leg for the whole two hours.
We would both give it a big thumbs up.

Now a movie rant: If there is one thing I detest it is the feeling that I have been screwed without a kiss, and that is one reason that we ( and I can assume from the sparse crowd in the theatre.) don't bother to go to the movies on a regular basis.
First is the prices at the concession. $15.00 for a couple popcorns and two sodas. OK so I'm becoming tight in my old age but when they get done investigating Exxon for price gouging they need to come down on the popcorn stands.
Second is the twenty full minutes of commercials before the start of the show. I don't mind a few previews of upcoming attractions but if I wanted to see two ads for "Soprano" reruns I would stay home, watch TV, and pop my own damn popcorn. The trailer for Will Smith's latest movie was so long I'm sure I could write a review about it without actually ever seeing it. At one point they turned down the lights and as I settled in for the feature we got another trailer and when the movie did actually begin it took me a couple minutes to realize that the one I paid to see was running. I'm still waiting for the kiss.
Whew; Glad I got that one off my chest.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

OK, I’ am usually not one to post a comment on blog pages because of the risk of some government agency that might be watching would link me with the views of the blogger, but in this case I felt that this was a safe topic.

I too have found that my family’s trips to the movie theater dwindled over the last decade because of many of the same issues. But a number of years ago we started a little something that has gotten us back in those comfortable stadium seats. It started with a beat with a close friend of ours. The beat, which one of us could sneak the best, most elaborate food into the theater.

The movie “What about Mary”

As we settle down and prepare our presentations I felt confident that our freshly popped popcorn, sodas and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies would be the clear winner. That was until I looked over at our friends to discover that they had a full spread of chips, salsa and to top that off, freshly made guacamole. Wow!

In short, I have found that not only do we save those concession stand dollars, but during the promos it gives you an opportunity to get your feast set up and get comfortable before the main attraction.

For those morning shows, home brewed coffee with French vanilla creamer and homemade breakfast tacos really hits the spot! Oh, you might get a look from some guy that is jealous of you as you add your salsa to that mixture of scrambled eggs, sausage and cheese, but chances are he’s to comfortable to get up and complain to the 18 year old theater manager.

Have fun with it, life is to short!