Wednesday, April 13, 2011
PICT FLICK
Today's film was
They say that there are only 13 movie stories and this is certainly one of them.
Add the 300 possible wrinkles on one of the 13 stories and you have many possibilities. That doesn't mean you can hide the formula underneath the action.
Here we have the troop that is cut off from the main forces in a guerilla war that no one is trained to conduct, in a strange land that no one understands and under political conditions that favor myth over reality.
The group has a token this and that, even a black guy who is not a Roman they say, but still, and a Judas figure who kills, well, (spoiler!!!) actually the black as it turns out so we even have the black card played.
I do not mean to be cynical because this is a good, but not great, variant on the theme and is shot and cut for quite a different look and emotional feel. Made in Britain with a British cast, there is a bit of the old English history here too. To say nothing of the old British sense of decorum at times.
The guerillas are, well we learned about them in school, the Picts! Christ all, I have never seen a Pict movie before. And sure enough there is a woman who is the main hunter of the Roman men who are cut off from the main forces. And to balance her there is a good woman, a witch, in the woods who is into the mix as a break in the action, a little sex and a point for a pivot later in the film.
There I go. Being cynical again.
Here is the thing. Michael Fassbender is really good as the centurion and I don't mean just under the shirt. He has quite a load to carry and he does it well.
I was on my seat edge through most of it and, here is the thing, it has some of the most gruesome goddam head slicing, delimbing, eye gouging grand guignol blood and thunder you will see outside a slasher film.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
