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The Passion of the Christ, a review by Rich

The Passion of the Christ



From Academy Award®-Winning director Mel Gibson comes a profound story of courage and sacrifice depicting the final twelve hours in the life of Jesus Christ.
Featuring stunning cinematography and an inspired performance by Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ is a triumphant and uncompromising filmmaking achievement.

Brutal, graphic, relentless and compelling. It is beautifully shot, but the level of violence is so extreme you become numbed by it, and I had a bad taste in my mouth after watching this. The Aramaic and Latin dialogue is not distracting if you are happy with subtitles, and the acting from the whole cast is top drawer. It is certainly moving in it's depiction of a man being tortured and killed in such an extreme nature, however Gibson perhaps lingers too much on this graphic display of suffering.
Not sure why there was such controversy over this film, perhaps the depiction of jews as evil antagonists, the Romans (aside from Pilate and his wife) as brutal drunkard sadists, or the 'historical accuracy'? The flashbacks of Jesus of Nazareths early life are far too infrequent reliefs from the violence, too short, and haphazard. When the cruxifixion finally takes place you are so used to the brutality that it has less shock appeal than I would have thought, and the ending could not come quick enough.
I am glad I have watched this, I can't say it was a pleasure, more of an experience.
 


**Monica Bellucci mini-marathon



(From Riches Random Reviews on August 25th, 2009)

Django and Sartana's Showdown in the West, a review by GSyren

Title	Django and Sartana's Showdown in the West (011301-660060)
Director	Demofilo Fidani, Diego Spataro
Actors	Jack Betts, Franco Borelli, Simone Blondell, Benito Pacifico, Calso Faria
Produced	1970 in Italy
Runtime	83 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	None
My thoughts	Someone has called Demofilo Fidani "The Ed Wood of spaghetti westerns". That's not fair. He (with co-director Spataro, together using the alias "Dick Spitfire" here) is nowhere near as inept as Ed Wood. And consequently doesn't achieve the same level of "so bad it's good". This is just rather dull. It becomes almost comical at times, because the stunt arranger goes overboard and turns every guy that is shot into an acrobat. Nobody just falls down dead in this movie. Gordon Mitchell is the token American, and plays a deliciously crazy gang leader that talks to himself in a mirror. And even plays cards with himself. Unfortunately we never get to see who wins... Summed up in one word: "Meh"
My rating	2,5 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on May 19th, 2013)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: With the help of the M.A.L.P. SGC surveys a planet with a highly toxic atmosphere. But then they discover a dome under which people still live. There existance has been threatened for a while yet they know nothing about it.

My Opinion: The link device was    undoubtedly stolen from Seven of Nine but I still would like to have one of those. Permanently being online *dreaming*. Apart from that the episode was ok, but not exceptional.

Synopsis: SG-1 discovers a crashed spaceship on which are several hundred people being kept in stasis. But then something extraordinary happens: The consciousnesses of 12 different people are put into Daniel's head - additionally to his own. The problem is to get them out again.

My Opinion: Once again a very good episode for Michael Shanks who could play the whole range from a small boy to the arrogant sovereign. I liked it a lot.

Synopsis: A mining expeditions finds a huge vein of Naquadah. The problem is: The local Unas tribes see this place as holy ground. Daniel tries to negotiate but he needs help - Chaka.

My Opinion: I liked the fact that Daniel's was right about the new Colonel. Jack would have listened to him (probably). I also liked the negotiations and the fact that the arrogance of the Humans nearly led to their undoing (similar to Spirits).

Synopsis: Warrick, the Captain of the Sebrus, invites Sam to participate in a space race aboard his ship. But the race doesn't go as expected.

My Opinion: A pure fun episode based on the Pod Race in Star Wars I and probably on the Star Trek: Voyager episode Drive.
I also liked the regular product placements during the comments which reminded me of "Binford".

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on April 17th, 2008)