TranceAddict Forums

TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Chill Out Room
-- Review of 300
Pages (5): [1] 2 3 4 5 »


Posted by LazFX on Mar-09-2007 10:20:

Review of 300

This looks pretty good. 3 out of 3 stars.

quote:
Body count - 300
TheStar.com - artsentertainment - Body count - 300
A full-bore gore, total-immersion and visually thrilling battle experience that's not for the faint hearted

March 09, 2007
Peter Howell
Movie Critic



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
300
(3out of 4)

Starring Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West and Rodrigo Santoro. Directed by Zack Snyder. 117 minutes. At major theatres. 18A
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All you sissies and pantywaists, out of the theatre. This means you, Skippy, cowering in the corner with your man purse and your granola bar.

The Spartan warrior movie 300 is not for the meek, despite its visual virtues and high thrill quotient. It's a total-immersion battle experience for eaters of red meat, worshippers of the male physique and lovers of extreme violence.

That last qualifier is crucial. If you wince at the sight of skewered bodies and decapitated skulls, then your money is better spent on a repeat screening of An Inconvenient Truth.

This is the kind of film where the dead bodies really are stacked like cordwood, and then pushed in a heap on top of people who are about to become dead bodies. "Pile those Persians higher," someone commands.

The manly dudes in 300 run around nearly naked, their swords constantly at the ready.

They tell one another to have a good breakfast "because tonight we dine in hell." How those meals are connected, I'll never know. But if you're wondering what hell's cafeteria has on the menu, wonder no more. It's human kebabs.

In bringing Frank Miller's graphic novel about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae to the screen, Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead remake) has demonstrated the kind of fidelity that could earn him an eternity ring, were such girly-man behaviour tolerated. Miller's violence has been graphically rendered.

The special effects are impressive, combining artistic vision with the blood-and-guts reality of warfare. It's more colourful than Sin City, Miller's other cinematic adaptation, because the desaturated reds of the painterly production design match the flowing blood.

The visuals are strong enough to sustain the anemic plot � this is Spartan in more ways than one � and dialogue that verges on the risible.

And it's a weirdly schizophrenic affair. The acres of rippling beefcake on display make this arguably the most homoerotic film ever released to the mainstream. If there's not a 300 float in this year's Pride parade, then someone deserves a Spartan spanking.

Yet the film manages to also be homophobic. Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler, newly buff and convincingly bombastic) expresses his contempt for non-combative Athenians by dismissing them as "philosophers and boy lovers."

What's really unsettling is the gratuitous gore. Such as a post-battle scene where Leonidas munches on an apple while standing in a field of dead Persians, while his men go about crushing the skulls of fallen invaders who might still be breathing.

The movie is based on historical fact, something that could surprise anyone who understandably views 300 as simply a fanboy's wet dream, complete with dream sequences of semi-nude goddesses.

The Battle of Thermopylae is one of the most famous showdowns of antiquity. A small but brave army of Spartans � the 300 of the title � and other Greeks banded together against the multitudes of Persia's invaders. In more recent times, we'd think of the siege of the Alamo, Custer's Last Stand or the Japanese defence of Iwo Jima.

It's the year 480 B.C., and Leonidas is offered a Hobson's choice by the advancing armies of Persian Emperor Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro): surrender Sparta and become slaves or stand fast and be slaughtered.

Leonidas chooses a third option: fight back, and hold the barbarians long enough so that Greece can properly marshal its forces. The king has no trouble rounding up 299 brave fellow Spartans to join him, but he gets no support from the scabby soothsayers and sexy oracles who live in the nearby hilltops like Dr. Seuss characters. Leonidas is told to hold his fire until after the celebration of an annual harvest festival.

He also faces resistance from a swinish politician Theron (Dominic West), who views Leonidas as a competitor � not just for Spartan power, but also for the affections of Gorgo (Lena Headey), Leonidas's loyal wife and queen.

The Spartan king has reason beyond the "live free or die" ethos to disobey the oracles and to confront the Emperor Xerxes. The Persian leader looks like an escapee from a carnival, with more piercings than Moby Dick. Xerxes commands a menagerie of homicidal freaks that include rampaging rhinos and elephants and a dim giant. He's more clown than dictator.

Leonidas does have one ace up his sleeve: if he and his men can draw the Persians towards the narrow seaside mountain passage known as "the gates of hell," they might be able to literally put the squeeze on them.

"There is no room for softness, not in Sparta," Leonidas says. He's not kidding.

Don't worry about missing a single severed head or impaled torso. Director Snyder frequently switches to slow-mo to savour every appalling act. And he's not above incorporating a Crucifixion image at the end to drive home his point about the nobility of going to war to defend your nation, a subtext that will make this popular entertainment for Conservatives and Republicans everywhere.

It's most definitely a Spartan movie, yet it's really all about wretched excess.




SOURCE


Posted by SuspicionVandit on Mar-09-2007 10:36:

don't rate an epic movie if there isn't an epic grade scale.

call it 4 MOTHER FUCKING STARS or something non-pussy like that.

anyways, as for me, solid, stylish, fucking epic, badass, music was terrific, and the feeling of empowerment to kill shit, won't miss spit 4000 bullets a minute is enthralling.
i can beat chuck liddell


Posted by igottaknow on Mar-09-2007 13:50:

Is Chuck Norris in it?


Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 13:59:

I'm not watching unless they add 1% more Spartans.

303 > 300


Posted by Trance Nutter on Mar-09-2007 14:02:

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
303 > 300





Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 14:03:

quote:
Originally posted by Trance Nutter


Yes.


Posted by Trance Nutter on Mar-09-2007 14:05:

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Yes.


gotcha


Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 14:12:

quote:
Originally posted by Trance Nutter
gotcha

Heheheheh, but tell me, wouldn't 300 be better with some acid background music?

Random Violence + Visual FX + Acid Techno = Pure win!


Posted by Subey on Mar-09-2007 14:41:

I haven't quoted Lira today!

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
I'm not watching unless they add 1% more Spartans.

303 > 300


I have now Quoted Lira!


Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 14:47:


Posted by AlphaStarred on Mar-09-2007 15:23:

Why is Swamper's headshot your avatar?


Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 15:40:

quote:
Originally posted by AlphaStarred
Why is Swamper's headshot your avatar?

Because he's ultra-sexy!










By the way, you know that's not him, but me, right?


Posted by AlphaStarred on Mar-09-2007 15:55:

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
By the way, you know that's not him, but me, right?


Of course, my question concerns your c.u.t.


Posted by aNYthing on Mar-09-2007 15:57:

quote:
Originally posted by Trance Nutter
303+devilfish mod


A 303 with Devilfish??? ha! spanks 300 anytime, even if it is a Chrysler 300M with a tricked-out Hemi...Crazy Chrysler 300


LMAO@
quote:
The acres of rippling beefcake on display make this arguably the most homoerotic film ever released to the mainstream. If there's not a 300 float in this year's Pride parade, then someone deserves a Spartan spanking.


Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 16:01:

quote:
Originally posted by AlphaStarred
Of course, my question concerns your c.u.t.

Oh...
That's a sad, sad story


Posted by Pokit on Mar-09-2007 16:12:

I saw the midnight showing of 300, and it was HAWT.
I didn't like the way it started out too much, but other than that the movie was great! It even had a little humor lolz.


Posted by AlphaStarred on Mar-09-2007 16:14:

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Oh...
That's a sad, sad story


Oh, I meant c.u.t. as in custom user text.


Posted by Lira on Mar-09-2007 16:19:

quote:
Originally posted by AlphaStarred
Oh, I meant c.u.t. as in custom user text.



People say we look alike, for some reason. Must be the Portuguese ancestry.


Posted by AlphaStarred on Mar-09-2007 16:27:

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Must be the Portuguese ancestry.


Or the long forgotten separation.


Posted by Igaryok on Mar-09-2007 17:04:

I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie, I might go today, but then I also really want to see Zodiac.


Posted by AndreaCKY772 on Mar-09-2007 17:15:

i'd like to see it today, tomorrow or next weekend.

edit: i'm seeing it at 4pm today... hopefully it's not too crowded. i like crowded theatres but not when we can't get a seat.


Posted by venomX on Mar-09-2007 18:10:

HA! saw this for free and on wednesday bitchez it was pretty awesome, definitely a good testosterone ride.


Posted by SuspicionVandit on Mar-09-2007 18:16:

lol@ the hardcore porn 30 minutes into the movie
when they were fucking doggy some guy in the audience yelled out "ya, she likes the sparta dick!"
it twas funney
and we all laughed
and rejoiced
that 300 men
stood against many


Posted by igottaknow on Mar-09-2007 22:41:

you know when a movie gets promoted this much before its released it must suck. The previews make it look like its a video game accept you don't get a joystick.


Posted by AndreaCKY772 on Mar-10-2007 00:11:

verrrry gooood moooovieeee


Pages (5): [1] 2 3 4 5 »

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.