The Passion of the Christ
Dir: Mel Gibson
2004
**
Whether you believe in Christ, his story, God or any religion, the story leading to Christ's Crucifixion is an interesting one and although Mel Gibson's version is more realistic than other version (and by realistic I mean graphic) he doesn't explore the story enough. It should have been called The Suffering of the Christ. I know that that is basically the point and what Gibson wanted to show, Christ suffered for our sins etc, but there is much more to the story that wasn't explored, the why, where and who are mostly missing. Apart from Caviezel and Shopov, the acting was fairly over the top and the inclusion of the Turin shroud as factual was cringe-worthy. All that said, Caviezel and Shopov's performances were very good in my opinion, the graphic detail was important and thank god (excuse the pun) it wasn't in English and was acted by people who looked like they could have come from that part of the world (apart from Christ who is a little bit too White). All in all, it has its big faults but it's not terrible but it's hardly the greatest story ever told.