Apocalypto

I finally got around to watching Apocalypto, I didn't look at my watch once. And that means it was a very well made movie.

But it didn't live up to the hype.

All the reviews I've read portrayed this as about the most gruesome, gross-out, blood-spurting movie you're ever likely to see. Perhaps I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but it's really not too far off. But in actually watching the movie, I didn't find it any more gruesome than Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan or anything Quentin Tarantino ever made, and it doesn't even come close to the graphic gross-out quality of stuff like Hostel or pretty much anything George Romero ever made, to say nothing of Japanese classics like the Lone Wolf and Cub series. I get the feeling that the reviewers felt that they had to find something to complain about the film because it was made by Mel Gibson.

But I've got to admit when I started the "making of" documentary on the special features, for those first few seconds Mel had crazy eyes. Demented and maniacal, he looked. Having said that, I feel like a proper film critic.

I don't know if I'll buy it, but it's definitely worth watching at least once.