It is Mel Gibson's latest proof that as a director, his ambition is boundless and his energy nearly so, but his judgment is sorely lacking.
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12/08/06
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Apocalypto (2006)
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Reviews Counted:182
Fresh:117
Rotten:65
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Apocalypto is a brilliantly filmed, if mercilessly bloody, examination of a once great civilization.
Theatrical Release:Dec 8, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $50,772,724
Synopsis: Mel Gibson (BRAVEHEART, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST) tackles the downfall of Mayan civilization in his latest turn as writer/director. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and his fellow villagers lead a... [More]
Starring: Dalia Hernandez, Mayra Serbulo, Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo
Director: Mel Gibson
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Reviews for Apocalypto
This is a chase movie with a fancy set-up, that's all.
12/08/06
Say what you want about Mel Gibson -- and people are likely to be saying whatever forever -- he is one hell of a filmmaker.
12/08/06
Top CriticCredit should also go to the fierce-eyed Youngblood and Hernandez for making their onscreen relationship so believable. And youngster Baez is completely natural, which is even more incredible when you consider that he's speaking an ancient language.
12/08/06
Apocalypto isn't for everyone, but one thing's clear: Gibson probably should spend more time behind the camera and less time making headlines.
12/08/06
Top CriticApocalypto wants us to believe there is an overpowering darkness in the land, while I can't quite get past a suspicion of overpowering darkness in the filmmaker.
12/08/06
It's striking, all right, but some of us don't care to be struck -- especially when we keep getting hit right between the eyes.
12/08/06
Filming in the state of Veracruz and on the Yucatan Peninsula, Gibson and his production team transport viewers six centuries back in time to create an amazing 'you are there' effect.
12/08/06
The production design is superb, and the actors deliver their dialogue in subtitled Yucatecan Maya, but despite all the anthropological drag, this is really just a crackerjack Saturday-afternoon serial.
12/08/06
It represents as brazen an act of career suicide as I can recall from a star director. If he were a first-timer, he'd never work again.
12/08/06
As a whole, it’s far from great and sometimes downright awful. Yet there’s too much to admire in its component parts to dismiss either the movie or the increasingly enigmatic man who made it.
12/08/06
Mel Gibson may be a lunatic, but he's our lunatic, and while I wouldn't wish him behind the wheel of a car after happy hour or at a B'nai Brith function anytime, behind a camera is another matter.
12/08/06
Passable but not really memorable, it's a movie that should have been released over the summer, which still reigns as the best time of year to see a guy get killed with frog-poisoned darts.
12/08/06
The plot has been stripped to the essence of chase and survival.
12/08/06
"Apocalypto" isn't a movie for everyone, Lord knows. Those who dislike even the thought of a big, black jungle cat chewing the face off a fallen warrior should probably see another movie.
12/08/06
A simple story told in the most feverish extremes. Apocalypto is nightmare, morality play, triumph of human will and, most of all, virtuosic cinema.
12/08/06
The Hills Have Eyes in the jungle
12/08/06
It's all Shock and Awe, but for what?
12/08/06
Gibson has made a bloody flick about death and social decay in a pagan culture, and he hints ever so obliquely that the world has not fared any better under we Christians.
12/08/06
Gibson may have a long way to go in dealing with his prejudices, but... we [can] marvel that someone can be a terrible person and yet still produce great art.
12/08/06
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