Anyone in the UK want to go see a movie and offer a quick

[enlightenment]

review for me from the A/A perspective?

It's called "Black Death" (horrible title, imo); directed by Chris Smith; screenplay by Dario Poloni.

Opens the 11th of June (UK only), presumably in wide release. I thought it was going to be the standard 'B' horror flick, but from the reviews are starting to sound interesting than the average guts and gore/'I paid money to see this?? movie. Sort of Wicker Man-ish, but perhaps more complicated (or not. Hard to tell).

http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/88560/black-death.html
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942272.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2010/05/30/Not-a-bad-journey-into-hell-BLACK-DEATH-movie-review

I can offer you nothing but my thanks and sincere appreciation for your time!

[LeftishBrit]

1. Not really my scene (bit squeamish!) but you could post this in the UK forum,

[enlightenment]

2. Thanks anyway - I've got several friends who have it on

their calendars and I'm sure they'll share their opinions - but it has a very strong 'conflict of faith and reason' theme, apparently, and I hoped for a review from that perspective. It is getting more and more strong reviews, with most suggesting that the gore aspect is actually more sound than sight (unusual for Smith; perhaps he's trying to break away from the genre) and the plot rather brilliant.

No matter - like everything else it'll be out on DVD soon enough, I suspect - at least in Region 2 (ah, the pleasures of a region-free DVD player!)

Thank you for responding! :)

[PassingFair]

3. Wow, that looks amazing. I hope it's better than "Robin Hood"...

a big disappointment for me.

Also, Agora, which I had such high hopes for.
Love Hypatia, love Rachel Weisz, but the movie
put me to sleep like a high school play.

[enlightenment]

4. I was briefly tempted by Robin Hood after watching an

hour long "History" channel advert for the film . . . but in the end, I like the classic Robin Hood (and don't really care for Crowe, who seems remarkably overrated) so I'll probably pass unless someone loans me the DVD at some point. Haven't seen Agora and based on your review, I'm not convinced I want to see it, either!

Black Death is really attracting a lot of buzz and most of it is focused on the complexity of the plot - it's clearly a bit more than the standard gore-fest, for thinking people, at least. I've read a couple of reviews from folks who either could not or simply refused to entertain the questions the story seems to raise (based on all the other reviews) and trashed it for being 'not gory enough' or 'like totally lame, dude' or 'ewwh - icky!'

Whatever. ;)

[PassingFair]

5. That part in the trailer, where the pagan leader says:

"Crucify them all!" ....

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/black-death/trailer

Gave me goosebumps.

[enlightenment]

6. One of the reviewers - can't recall which one because it's

gotten a lot (!), said that the plot was something that Richard Dawkins would dream up (not in those words) because it focuses on the irrationality of belief of any stripe, not just Christianity. The core issue is what 'belief' can cause people to do - and in that respect, the 'lesson' might be applied to a myriad of human foibles!

I'm sure that it's gruesome - Smith is a gore guy - I'm just hopeful that there's enough plot to make it worth that unpleasant aspect.