300 (2007)

Well, it's still about as dumb as I thought.

I went to the theater to see this movie on opening night. I had not slept the entire night before, and had taken a 400-mile car trip the following day.

I could not handle the chatter of this film, or the darkness of the theater.

I attempted to make a judgment despite substantial evidence that I had slept through most of the film.

This was my mistake.

I have now re-watched 300 (or, more correctly, actually seen the entire film), and my opinion has brightened tremendously. Seeing the other 90% of the film, it sure didn't get any smarter, but it certainly did get a lot more entertaining.

The film depicts the Battle of Thermopylae, in which three hundred Spartan soldiers, lead by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and the massive Persian army.The film is still incredible-looking, and in fact, considering that the sword-and-sandal genre is a bit of an inclusive, restrictive genre of film, the only way you seemingly CAN make a flourish or a difference would be stylistically, to build up, as opposed to it building out.

Now, I'm not completely turning the leaf...it is still a far-too-chatty affair, with characters speaking in platitudes and expository sound bites as opposed to realistic dialogue, which would be more standable if they didn't do it so often and at length.

So, although I'm not exactly awarding it a top 5 spot so far, I will put it at #6, and allow you to giggle at the review for Next where I suggest that that film is not only AS good but BETTER than 300