Pun Salad

The premise of this movie doesn't exactly scream "sure-fire boffo box office." Yet Mel Gibson got it made, so good on him. And the detail and atmosphere leave little doubt he made it the way he wanted: it's pretty much exactly as if we had a magical time-travelling eye that we could plunk down anywhere we wanted in the past, and we happened to catch onto a thrilling drama set in the late Mayan civilization. With a helpful auto-translator supplying subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

It's pretty brutal, although not unrelievedly so. I liked the opening scenes, which will make you realize, yes, despite wide differences in details, guys in all times and places share an important characteristic: the urge to execute elaborate sex-related practical jokes at the expense of their gullible buddies.

It's a Gibson movie, so our Gibsonian hero also is made to endure physical abuse that would send a normal person into a quivering mercy-begging fetal position. But our boy soldiers on, and the only question is: will he wind up like Jesus and William Wallace, or will he pull a Martin Riggs turnaround? No spoilers here!

It drags a bit in the middle, is all.