Overview: From Mel Gibson, director of The Passion Of The Christ and the Academy Award® winning Braveheart (Best Director, Best Picture, 1995) comes the thrilling historical epic Apocalypto. This intense, nonstop action-adventure transports you to an ancient South American civilization, for an experience unlike anything you’ve ever known. In the twilight of the mysterious Mayan culture, young Jaguar Paw is captured and taken to the great Mayan city where he faces a harrowing end. Driven by the power of his love for his wife and son, he makes an adrenaline-soaked, heart-racing escape to rescue them and ultimately save his way of life. Filled with unrelenting action and stunning cinematography, Apocalypto is an enthralling and unforgettable film experience. Now take in this compelling story with visually spectacular 1080p, while your ears listen in to the 5.1 48 kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio. You’ll experience the quality of this told woven fabric way more than regular DVD here in Blu-ray™ High Definition!

DVD Verdict: To be quite frank, I am sick and tired of hearing people bag on this film (including professional film critics) or stating that they refuse to even go see it simply because "they don't like Mel Gibson." If I boycotted films that had actors in them that I didn't like as people then I'd never watch another film.

Think what you will of Mel Gibson, the fact remains that he is an amazing filmmaker, and Apocalypto is a grand, epic entertainment that is in every way on par with his last great achievement (and no it's not The Passion of the Christ, but Braveheart). Aside from the needlessly bizarre scenes suggesting that prophecy, premonitions, and omens are real and accurate, aside from some laughably remote coincidences that continuously benefit the film's protagonist, Apocalypto emerges as one of the greatest action/adventure/survival films ever produced.

In fact I even feel comfortable making one those ridiculously sweeping complements that critics are so fond of: Apocalypto is the absolute most relentless American action film since William Friedkin's Sorcerer, which, for those who do not know, was made in the 70s. Once the chaos starts it never lets up; it only mounts and escalates, piling tension upon tension as the tale gets more and more harrowing. The fight scenes are brutal and utterly realistic, easily the most convincing I've seen since Jones and Del Toro duked it out in The Hunted (which they really did by the way).

Gibson follows Eastwood's advice: he takes a devastatingly simple story and premise, he films it in a simple, straightforward manner, lets the camera actually capture what we are to see, and plays it for all it's worth. This has got to be one of the first grand-scale action films since the 90s that wasn't totally ruined by that DISEASE of American cinema called THE SHAKY CAMERA SYNDROME, which is usually accompanied by FAST SHUTTER-ITIS. (Epidemiologists have traced this disease's origin to Michael Bay's The Rock, which ruined action films for years to come.) Thank you, Gibson, for not falling prey to this popular yet incompetent style of filmmaking (eh-hem, listen up Ridley Scott, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven were fine films, but I couldn't see a darn thing).

By the way, the quote that starts the film is apt and relevant even today in America, and I'm somewhat sure that is part of Gibson's point. Great civilizations can really only be destroyed by divisiveness and infighting. Gibson unabashedly shows us a realistic depiction of how bloody history actually is, as well as the fact that it is simply not the case that Natives were living in tranquility until Europeans came and ruined everything. They were engaged in terrible wars, and genocide was common among Native Americans before the Europeans ever came. If the nation depicted in Apocalypto had been an organized civilization not plundered by divisiveness, they could have easily wiped out the few conquistadors that came.

But, if you have yet to see this movie, then via this incredible Blu-ray opportunity you have to make this your first 'Apocalypto' experience ... trust me! This is a High Definition Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Backstage: A Feature Commentary by Writer/Director/Producer Mel Gibson and Writer/Co-Producer Farhad Safinia
Deleted Scenes - Can be viewed with Optional Commentary by Writer/Director/Producer Mel Gibson and Writer/Co-Producer Farhad Safinia
Movie Showcase: Instant access to Select Movie Scenes That Showcase The Ultimate in High Definition Picture and Sound
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