300 (2007)

Wow. I didn't expect to hate this movie, but neither did I expect to like it quite as much as I did. I thought it'd be an OK diversion that left my mind 10 minutes after I saw it. This was much better than that.

I'm embarrassingly deficient in my knowledge of history (and geography), so I don't have a clue about whether or not there's any accuracy to the events here. I'm am pretty sure the world had a bit more color back in the day...but the sepia-toned look here is so beautiful that I'm certainly not whining about it! I'm a sucker for the "brutal on the battlefield, tender in bed with the beloved wife" type (Gladiator and Rob Roy hit this spot-on too), so I was pretty into it altogether.

Complaint: I don't understand why a movie so obviously saturated with the very best effects would settle for such a ridiculous rubber creation for the Hunchback. It was distractingly fake.

B