Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo
Director: Mel Gibson
Country: USA
Genre: Foreign, Epic

Not sure if this one was on the Mayan calendar… but it should be.

I’ll just come out and say it. Apocalypto is kind of badass. I was completely taken by surprise anticipating some sort of laborious experience, which probably stems from the endurance needed to get through Passion of the Christ. Gibson has crafted one hell of a fight-for-your-life chase movie. There’s something incredibly appealing about the savagery and primality of survival that I’m sure most meat eaters will respond to. One disconcerting thing was traveling to IMDb afterwards and coming to the obvious realization that some of the cast were actors, but that’s a compliment to the realism of the film, though Gerardo Taracena’s Klaus Kinski-eqsue performance should have been an indicator. Like most of Gibson’s films, it is not for the squeamish. There’s something extra nerve wracking when you’re dealing with near-naked characters fighting each other with sharp objects.