Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.
---
This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Ancient World (3600 BC – 500 AD)
---
I'm a big fan of period dramas, but the ancient world is not particularly a period I like for movies. That said here are the ones I like.
I've picked this before for some other theme. I was actually quite surprised that I liked it the first time I saw it. The performances here are great, both Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix who played an incredible hateable, as well as the score.
300 (2006)
Great action and visually stunning.
Centurion (2010)
A small group of Roman soldiers, survivors of a guerrilla attack, try to get back into the safety of Roman territory. It's a pretty great action movie and has a couple of actors I like in it as well.
300 (2006)
Great action and visually stunning.
Centurion (2010)
A small group of Roman soldiers, survivors of a guerrilla attack, try to get back into the safety of Roman territory. It's a pretty great action movie and has a couple of actors I like in it as well.
---
If
you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget
below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which
will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs,
spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your
own Thursday Movie Picks post :)
---
Participating Blogs/Bloggers
Gladiator is great and 300 is all sorts of fun. Haven't seen Centurion, yet.
ReplyDeleteI've seen all of your picks but I liked Gladiator only. The other two were terrible imo.
ReplyDeleteRussell Crowe is so great in Gladiator, I'm not sure Best Actor great but I think he won more for his cumulative work up to that point, and the movie itself is very involving. I particularly liked Connie Nielsen whose performance never got the attention it deserved.
ReplyDelete300 was so innovative when it came out, now it has so many imitators the bloom is off it somewhat but it's still enjoyable.
I didn't care too much for Centurion.
Love these types of films but I have a particular fondness for the big budget pageants of the 50's which is where I pulled my three choices from this week:
Quo Vadis? (1951)-Huge, impressive epic of Nero’s (Peter Ustinov) reign and his persecution of the Christians. Against the broader scale of the story (with amazing sets and a literal cast of thousands) is the tale of Roman general Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) who falls in love with the Christian Lygia (Deborah Kerr) and slowly adopts her religion, a very dangerous decision for the time. Vast in scope with pageantry and a human feel that can’t be replicated by CGI that thanks to the direction and performances, Leo Genn is particularly fine as Marcus’s Uncle Petronius, remains more accessible than many similar films of the period.
Land of the Pharaohs (1955)-Hooty nonsense about the building of the Great Pyramid in ancient Egypt. Packed with quality British actors, including Jack Hawkins, James Robertson Justice and Sydney Chaplin, extravagantly playing to the back row and best of all (well most campily of all anyway) a young and very beautiful Joan Collins vamping it up as the pharaoh’s wife Nellifer. To say she’s good would be a stretch but she sure is entertaining. The usually excellent Howard Hawks doesn’t seem to have a handle on the pace of the story so despite the florid ridiculousness of the picture it occasionally drags.
Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)-Fictional sequel to The Robe picks up where that film ended. The movie follows two stories: faithful Demetrius (Victor Mature) the soldier converted to Christianity in the first picture is pressed into being a gladiator and catches the eye of the salacious Messalina (Susan Hayward) wife of Emperor Caligula’s uncle which causes a crisis of conscience. Meanwhile the mad Caligula pursues Jesus’s robe believing it to have magical powers. Star-studded if improbably cast (i.e. Ernest Borgnine as a Roman centurion) with future stars Anne Bancroft and Julie Newmar appearing briefly. Nicely produced if a bit overblown.
I only saw Gladiator and I love it! Russell Crowe is excellent, Joaquin is great and so evil but I also loved Connie Nielsen who played her character so well and it stood out with the scene chomping actors.
ReplyDeleteAw Yeh Gladiator. Great film. As is 300 but I haven't seen Centurion.
ReplyDeleteI also went with 300 and Gladiator is a great pick! I haven't seen Centurion though.
ReplyDeleteI liked 300 but wasn't a fan of Gladiator. I haven't seen Centurion.
ReplyDeleteI skipped this week because I didn't think I had seen any, but I did see Gladiator. It was well done, just too graphic for me.
ReplyDelete