The Passion of the Christ

Icon pictures and New Market films presents

Starring: Jim Caviezel, Monica Belluci

Directed by: Mel Gibson

Rating: ***1/2

Plot: The film focuses on the last days of Jesus Christ where he is betrayed all the way through to his crucifixion. A story about one man fighting to protect every human from themselves and the darkness that follows them. Now try to forget the religious stuff and focus on film I think this movie will open some minds. Its just a lot of bloody violence ensues.

Acting: Now to me I would think being casted as Jesus would be difficult. Caviezel I think does the best job to date at playing Jesus I guess because he looked the part. Since he actually does not say very much at all his presence is needed and he does a perfect job at that. I guess his golden brown contacts helped a bit too. Now sadly for me to say this movie is not fully an acting movie. A lot of people cry and yell and I guess everyone did a great job at doing that. The one actor that needs to be noted, now this might have been all Mel Gibson but who knows. This actress who played Satan, did a really great job since Satan was suppose to be a half man half woman thing with no hair. Very freaky the scenes in which Satan was in will not leave my head they were just so stunning.

Directing/Writing: Now one thing you haft to do is leave your emotions at the door when you enter this film. Because if you already have a thought about the movie, positive or negative your going to have problems just watching this movie because the media blitz about it. Now Mel Gibson has made one hell of a great movie before, Braveheart is one of my all time favorite movies. Mel here tries to use reality to kick your ass emotionally. This movie is really just trying to get the point across that Jesus went through a lot for people. This film is very simple no twists no turns its just watching all of this happen and trying to learn from it. Now I really don't get why everyone is so mad at this movie because I saw nothing nasty or mean spirited in the film. Maybe that is because I am not very religious so I just didn't know what the religious tones were, but from what I saw on screen nothing seemed hateful or tricky in that sense. I do have major complaints that I have not really heard from any other reviewer. Everyone babbles on about the violence, well come on we have seen over the top violent movies in the past and even this year and no one complains so that just seemed weird to me. This movie is bloody and violent but its realistic which I think is much better then over the top violence. My problems with the movie was the fact this movie did not balance itself with character back ground. We get one or two flash backs that are meaningful but just not enough for me. I just would have enjoyed more focus on the female characters in the story and some solid back story of how Jesus got in the sictuation he was in. The film when not focused on the crucifixion went by very fast the ending of the film seemed rushed to me but I guess there was no need for more story once he died but the film just seemed to end abruptly and left me with an empty feeling inside. The last thing that annoyed me was that the Romans in the movie just looked like Satanic cult members, when they were torturing Jesus they laugh and spit, which would be fine if they just didn't keep on going with it. I mean I think a point was suppose to be made where these guys were so evil but Jesus still forgave them for torturing him.

Overall: This movie is beautiful, the visuals are just stunning and that should be known. The film moves along at a fast pace amazingly for a religious film and fit my fancy just fine not being preachy at all. So if you have problems with the movie either suck in your gut and see it and then make your own analysis or just don't go see it. It's that simple.