Apocalypto – Film Review

I came across this one thanks to the most excellent History Buffs YouTube series, a show dedicated to reviewing historical movies run by a British guy called Nick Hodges. Nick is not a fan of Mel Gibson movies to put it mildly and he panned Apocalypto mercilessly for its many gross historical inaccuracies and the overall misrepresentation of the Mayan culture, with Gibson rolling his Mayans and his Aztecs into one. While his criticisms seemed legitimate, I’m way more forgiving towards the movies fudging historical facts for drama, and the film looked visually interesting at the very least. Besides, who else out there is making movies about a pre-Columbian civilisation shot exclusively in the Mayan dialect? I’ll take my Mayan movies where I can get them.

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Lawrence of Arabia – Film Review

30arabia1-superjumboI wish I could have watched this movie at the cinema, or at least on one of those enormous TV screens they taunt you with at JB Hi-Fi, because I don’t think my TV did it justice. This is a big fat epic of a film, so epic in fact it actually has an official intermission in the middle of its nearly four-hour running time. It’s interesting that, while TV series binge-watching is a fairly normal thing nowadays, that kind of episodic viewing still doesn’t have the same feel as watching a very long feature film.

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Alexander (Director’s Cut) – Film Review

I watched Oliver Stone’s much-maligned historical epic about Alexander the Great, the famous Macedonian king who conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks by the age of thirty. It’s a messy film with a miscast lead, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as its reputation (and 16% Rotten Tomatoes rating) would have me think.

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Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut – Film Review

Just like Prometheus, Kingdom of Heaven is another Ridley Scott film I really enjoy despite its many problems. This extended cut doesn’t fix the core issues I have, but it’s still a far more satisfying experience than the horribly rushed theatrical cut.

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