Change Your Image
DeSade
Reviews
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Walking in another man's shoes
How often have you had the opportunity to walk in another man's shoes? How many times have you wondered what exactly did Christ go through in the hour preceding his crucifixion? Ever wonder what implements of torture ad punishment the Roman Empire used during its hold on the Holy Lands? Well, Mel Gibson answers all of your questions and more!
This movie allows you to painstakingly walk in the shoes (sandals) of Christ. It allows you to feel a minute portion of the pain he suffered while being scourged. It lets you walk each step up the road to Golgotha and finally it forces you upon the crucifix to feel the nine-inch nails being driven through his hands and feet. While all this is happening, Jesus of Nazareth is letting those around Him know that all is forgiven and that they have no power over Him except what that is given from God above.
I have never in my life seen a movie as powerful, ugly, violent, breathtaking, mesmerizing, riveting, and beautiful as the masterpiece that Mel Gibson has put together using the Bible as reference. After seeing the movie I came home and picked up the scriptures and re-read what the movie depicted. Granted, Gibson takes some poetic license to get the point across, but it follows the scripture 99.9%.
The trip to Golgotha is plagued with pain upon the faces of those that loved Him so and also depicts the insane glee of the Roman guards that punished Christ as He made His way to His place of sacrifice. It is not often you see a film such as this that forces you to contemplate exactly what He did for mankind and the pain and suffering He endured.
The movie itself:
Acting: 10/10 - Superb performance by James Caviezel as Jesus of Nazareth. He felt the part and he conveyed the pain and strength that is in Christ. Rosalinda Celentano (Satan) did a wonderful job looking the part of the Deceiver. Her eyes are expressive and were full of hate, contempt and malice.
Music: 10/10 - It draws you in, holds you, plinks at your heart strings and doesn't let you go. A fantastic score.
Special Effects: 10/10 - The digital effects and the make-up were astounding.
Believability: 10/10 - The characters of the film speak in Latin, Aramaic, and Hebrew with English subtitles. The devices of torture, the armour and weapons, the religious costumes were as close to authentic as one could get.
If you want a vanilla version of the life of Christ, go rent King of Kings (1961) with a blue-eyed Jeffrey Hunter. Not saying it is a bad movie, in fact it is good movie but it doesn't have the dramatic impact, nor does any other movie depicting Christ, that The Passion of the Christ has. If you want to walk with Christ in His last hours and share an experience of the pain He must have felt, go see this movie.
Forget all the anti-Semitic talk. The Jews didn't kill Christ, the Poles didn't kill Him, and the Navaho Indians didn't do it either. It is not a matter of race or religious beliefs, the fact of the matter is MAN placed Christ on the cross at Golgotha. It wouldn't have mattered if Christ was from the North Pole and pygmies from Australia were doing the nailing of His hands and feet, they are of the Human race and thus are MEN.
Christ knew what had to be done to fulfill his calling here on Earth. He knew that He would be persecuted and thrown down by those of the Temple and he knew His life would end. Too many people look at the Bible and have the idea that it was a G-Rated world... they could be farther from the truth. The world then and the world now is just as X-Rated as it has ever been. The way Gibson told the story is they way we need to see it, for what it was... violent, unforgiving, and yet beautiful to behold the strength and enduring love of Jesus Christ.
See the movie and experience it with an open mind. Walk in His shoes for a few hours. I wouldn't be taking anyone under the age of 12 to this movie as they would have a hard time digesting its mature content.
The Master of Disguise (2002)
Advertisements are the ONLY highlights... get back in your turtle shell.
Mindless drivel comes to mind... insult to one's intelligence is another, but I think I will stick with the word 'boring' to describe Master of Disguise.
A friend rented Kung Pow: Enter the Fist a few months back and I thought of that as the worst movie I had seen next to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier... well Master of Disguise takes the cake, or turtle shell in this case. The commercials gave the impression of a very witty and funny Dana Carvey movie that was released about the same time as his friend Mike Meyer's movie, Goldmember. The problem is, the commercials WERE the movie. Any, and all funny material presented in the movie were contained in the 45 second spot that ran on TV. That means 79 minutes and 15 seconds of the movie were a complete waste of time.
So much more could have been done with the premise of a 'Master of Disguise', but instead they made the movie into a borefest of awful acting, horrible cliches, and a running fart scene that popped up every time the villain, played by Star Trek's Brent Spiner, laughed and lost control of his bowels.
If you wish to be entertained, I would recommend you watch Tombstone, Saving Private Ryan, or maybe endless re-runs of Lost in Space. To quote Dr. Smith from Lost in Space... "Oh the pain... oh the pain!" Master of Disguise rates a perfect score of ZERO in my book.
Blood Song (1982)
Originally called "Premonitions"
I had the opportunity to be an extra in this movie while in high school in North Bend, OR, where it was filmed. The staff of the film was unprofessional, to say the least, and the overall acting in the movie was sub-par, if not worse.
Nichelle North was a very nice person as was the gentleman who played the part of the Sheriff. Frankie Avalon was not believable as a psychopathic killer on the loose. He should have stuck with his beach movies instead.