Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: Early 30s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

APOCALYPTO (R)

MOVIE BIASES: Racist or not, Mel Gibson's got me intrigued.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Co-writer/director Mel Gibson

LOGLINE: After an idyllic hunter-gatherer Mayan village is razed by a dying warrior people, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), one of the enslaved men, escapes, and is chased throughout the jungle by his relentless captors as he attempts to make it back home to his hidden, pregnant wife (Dalia Hernandez) and young son (Carlos Emilio Baez).

THE DEAL: Say what you want about Mel Gibson but the man is an uncompromising visual artist with the ability to transport you to another time, place, and world. Featuring mostly unknown, first-time actors, Gibson's "Apocalypto" (funny – it was titled "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto" before he decided to become the unofficial UN Ambassador for Rich, Drunk Anti-Semites) is an action flick with an attitude – a sensitive, introspective, intriguingly cinematic attitude. Subtitled to compensate for the spoken Yucatec language of the indigenous Mexican Mayans at that time, Gibson narrates via music, scored by the always reliable James Horner (Titanic), even though it's a little much. What is also "a little much" (and trademark Gibson) is the brutal ferocity to the action. This time he has no Christian cloak of
piety under which to seek cover in explaining the almost inexplicable violence in this movie. I like action as much as the next guy but the carnage in this movie, however realistic, can get downright nasty (i.e. ritual human sacrifice, wildcat wrestling, a forced march chained to bamboo poles by the neck that makes the Bataan Death March look like a waltz). Gibson's actors are naturals, with Hernandez's plucky beauty and Youngblood's stalwart sense of will shining brightest. From a script by Gibson and his former assistant Farhad Safinia, "Apocalypto" is more than just "The Fugitive" Yucatan style, but a sensitive, thoughtful, breathless examination of fear: facing it, embracing it, conquering it. As Gibson treads down a new path of
social rehabilitation, his respectful, humane and thrilling "Apocalypto" offers him some sound career advice.

@@@ REELS
(THREE REELS)
It's pretty hot – go give it a shot.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: Early 30s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare APOCALYPTO (R) MOVIE BIASES: Racist or not, Mel Gibson's got me intrigued. MAJOR PLAYERS: Co-writer/director Mel Gibson LOGLINE: After an idyllic hunter-gatherer Mayan village is razed by a dying warrior people, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), one of the enslaved men, escapes, and is chased throughout the jungle by his relentless captors as he attempts to make it back home to his hidden, pregnant wife (Dalia Hernandez) and young son (Carlos Emilio Baez). THE DEAL: Say what you want about Mel Gibson but the man is an uncompromising visual artist with the ability to transport you to another time, place, and world. Featuring mostly unknown, first-time actors, Gibson's "Apocalypto" (funny – it was titled "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto" before he decided to become the unofficial UN Ambassador for Rich, Drunk Anti-Semites) is an action flick with an attitude – a sensitive, introspective, intriguingly cinematic attitude. Subtitled to compensate for the spoken Yucatec language of the indigenous Mexican Mayans at that time, Gibson narrates via music, scored by the always reliable James Horner (Titanic), even though it's a little much. What is also "a little much" (and trademark Gibson) is the brutal ferocity to the action. This time he has no Christian cloak of piety under which to seek cover in explaining the almost inexplicable violence in this movie. I like action as much as the next guy but the carnage in this movie, however realistic, can get downright nasty (i.e. ritual human sacrifice, wildcat wrestling, a forced march chained to bamboo poles by the neck that makes the Bataan Death March look like a waltz). Gibson's actors are naturals, with Hernandez's plucky beauty and Youngblood's stalwart sense of will shining brightest. From a script by Gibson and his former assistant Farhad Safinia, "Apocalypto" is more than just "The Fugitive" Yucatan style, but a sensitive, thoughtful, breathless examination of fear: facing it, embracing it, conquering it. As Gibson treads down a new path of social rehabilitation, his respectful, humane and thrilling "Apocalypto" offers him some sound career advice. @@@ REELS (THREE REELS) It's pretty hot – go give it a shot. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2004, Edwardo Jackson