“I worship the trousers that cling to him.”
Mel Gibson may be a flaming loony, but the man can direct. Apocalypto is riveting, and as for its supposedly extreme violence, I thought it was less gory than The Passion of the Christ or Braveheart. Apocalypto sticks to basic principles: it’s film as entertainment, and it works. An action movie moves, and this one runs and runs and runs—watch the Mayan Olympic hurdles team in action. All I can say is, Don’t mess with the people who invented the concept of zero. (They also said the apocalypse would come in May 2012; they’re not around to elaborate.) I’ll even explain the appearance of the Spanish conquistadors 500 years before they actually arrived as a vision of the future, or the director’s way of saying, Now you’re really screwed.
The History Boys is lovely, and how often can you say that of a movie about a bunch of teenage boys studying to get into Oxbridge? I suddenly missed my old high school (not that we were anywhere near as clever as those guys). Then I remembered the only time I was ever summoned to the director’s office: it was after the National College Entrance Exams, and in a wall news editorial I asked why we had to take the NCEE when it was chickenshit anyway. It was spelled ‘chickens**t’, but the director didn’t buy the literary editor’s argument that it could’ve meant ‘chickensuit’ or ‘chickenslut’. So I was reprimanded for arrogance, a lesson I’ve never learned, and by the way Riccardo has heard that you can be fined for arrogance by Makati traffic aides to the tune of P2,000. Anyway we loved the movie so much that we stayed on to watch the credits, and when the lights came on we found that of the five people left in the theatre, three had gone to Philippine Science High School: Auraeus, who’s making a movie about Pisay; Noel, who should make movies, and I, who will watch them. So now Rufus Wainwright’s version of Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered is in a repeating loop in my head, and I’d never noticed that it contained the lyric quoted above.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 8th, 2007 at 10:11
I´ve seen the first 20 minutes of the Apocalypto and just had to stop. It was too much gore for me ( animal balls are the only balls I would never eat).
Anyway, have you seen Pan´s Labyrinth already? Now, that´s a gem. Don´t be fooled by the trailer if it looks Harry Potter-ish. The truth is, it is more of blood, gore and violence (e.g. ripping off one´s mouth then stitching it without anaesthesia) more than fairy tale.
I felt bad that the film lost to VOLVER in the recently concluded GOYA AWARDS (Spanish OSCARS) for Best film and Director (Del Toro vs Almodovar? Mexican vs Spanish?…you get the picture) but anyways…
My nose bled after watching this film just like Ofelia (the little girl).
Oh by the way, I live in Spain so if you need any gossips about tennis hunk Rafa Nadal or THE Isabel Preysler, just give me a shout.
Hasta Luego y un besito!
February 9th, 2007 at 16:24
Mel Gibson, is truly one of the great Directors of our time. We can judge him personally on a negative basis, but the Director’s Chair is proving to be a sanctuary for this man, and I will keep going to his movies…
Pan’s Labyrinth. THE BEST!
June 14th, 2010 at 00:17
Sang sinehan pinalabas ang The History Boys? I only discovered that movie more or less a year ago included in a DVD9 which I think I stole somewhere. I caught a censored version shown in Star Movies later. At first I was only interested because the actor who plays the fat closeted gay teacher-molester is the same as the one who plays uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies. I cried when his character defined love. “See it as an inoculation rather, briefly painful but providing immunity for however long it takes.” I had to google “inoculation” though. =)) Favorite movie quote ever. I recognize the title of this post is from the movie too.
June 14th, 2010 at 00:21
The History Boys was shown at Glorietta and Greenbelt. Chus, Noel and I caught the last full show at Glorietta. When the lights came on we saw that the two other people in the audience were Auraeus and Hai. So sixty percent of the audience was from Philippine Science.
The title is a lyric from the song Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.