Forgive the admittedly cheesy title, but since the last two movies I saw have numbers for their titles, this movie commentary post is just begging for it. Hehehe.

300

Wow! Never since the Jet Li movie Hero have I seen such a visually stunning film. Despite the bloody gore and violence, the thin plot, the historical inaccuracies, and the constantly bellowed and cheesy lines by King Leonidas, 300 is easily the best film I’ve seen so far this year. And fellow bloggers are giving this liberal retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae praises as well: Ade, Rico, Juned, and Drei.

I haven’t read Frank Miller’s 300 graphic novel, from which the movie’s screenplay was adapted, and I haven’t seen Sin City, so I won’t make any comparisons. But I daresay that 300 doesn’t need comparisons because it can stand on its own mighty way. The excellent, excellent cinematography and art direction should definitely give 300 some nominations for next years Oscars. The violence and gore is not queasy, but actually adds a really good visual counterpoint to the golden fields of Sparta. One of the best scenes of the movie has to be the Oracle scene—just beautiful! The musical score is quite an aural treat as well, from the heavenly New Age female vocals accompanying the idyllic scenes to the rocking electric guitars of the battle cuts. (I think I’ll get a copy of the soundtrack.)

What’s not to like? As I said, the plot is thin and obviously predictable. The acting is just passable. The character development is pretty one-dimensional (but props to the strong-willed Queen Gorgo). And after the movie, there is nothing much to talk about.

Nevertheless, these points don’t detract much from the film. Go watch it now and you’ll be sure to enjoy two hours of your time.

The Number 23

I think The Number 23 is the first Jim Carrey movie that I’ve seen where he doesn’t primarily play his usual goofy characters that much. (Yes, I haven’t seen The Majestic and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.) Carrey is a very versatile actor and in this movie, we see him play a dark and increasingly delusional man obsessed with the number 23.

The plot is much, much stronger in this film than in 300 and I failed to guess the little twist near the end of the movie. Jim Carrey acted very well in this movie as both Walter Sparrow and Fingerling; Virginia Madsen was also effective as Agatha Sparrow and Fabrizia. The editing is quite good and the cinematography is good enough.

It’s a nice enough suspense movie. It won’t keep you on the edge of your seats, but it is intellectual enough to stimulate your brain and give you something to talk about or do after the film, like doing weird numeric calisthenics to make something related to the number 23.

Here’s one: Take “VAES9,” then get the numeric equivalent of the letters (V = 22, A = 1, E = 5, S = 19). Add them up (including the 9): 22 + 1 + 5 + 19 + 9 = 56. And notice that 5 = 2 + 3 and 6 = 2 × 3. Eerie! Hehehe.