300 (2007)

O An excellent must-see
X Good video rental
O Mediocre
O Rent something else

Review by Jason Pyles / August 25, 2007

Even though this version is edited, “300” is still remarkably violent and bloody, and it still includes two beheadings.

This movie could have also been titled “Testosterone.” It is a “guy movie” in every way, and as macho as it can be. The last movie with this much manhood was “Fight Club” (1999).

Not a movie for plot or story, “300” is a war movie whose warriors battle with spears and swords. And that’s really all there is to it.

A tyrannical, self-proclaimed “god-king” named Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) leads countless Persian hosts to dominate and enslave many lands, including Greece. Mighty king Leonidas (Gerard Butler) fiercely repels the threat.

And though Leonidas cannot get approval for a full-scale war, he assembles 300 “body guards” and takes a walk to a narrow corridor of land by the sea. This geographic advantage will funnel Xerxes’ numbers into manageable targets.

So, we watch the 300 receive wave after wave of enemies, some monstrous, some gigantic animals, all of them bleeders. (There is a lot of blood spatter, albeit CGI blood spatter.)

Other than this battle ground, the movie doesn’t really go anywhere else, except for the occasional glimpses back at Sparta. But as I indicated, this is an action/war movie, not a story like “House of Sand and Fog” (2003).

Despite the editing, this is still, at the very least, PG-13 — if not R. To be fair, “300” is a movie that probably could not successfully be edited down to PG. We see swords run through necks, eyes, arms, etc. You get the picture. All of the Spartan men are buff, bare-chested battlers; and the females in the movie are typically scantily clad.

If you love bloody action movies, “300” is for you. If not, rent the edited version of “House of Sand and Fog.”

Directed by Zack Snyder
Gerard Butler / Lena Headey / Rodrigo Santoro
117 min. Action / War
(Original MPAA rating: R)
Edited version age recommendation: 18 and up

DVD release date: July 31, 2007
Copyright 2007.
JP0183 : 302