Apocalypto (3.5/5) 
Jaguar Paw, a hunter from a village deep in the rainforest, captured by Mayan slavers and dragged across the countryside with his people to the heart of the Mayan civilization. There, they will be sacrificed to the Mayan sun god.
Along the way we get a brief look at the slow rot eating up the Mayans: the people live in squalor, disease and famine are common, morality, if it ever existed, has been thrown out the window in favor of elevating the elite.
But it’s not long before Jaguar Paw escapes and the movie gets down to business as he races through the jungle pursued by Mayan hunting parties, in a desperate attempt to get back home and save his wife, whom he left hidden deep in an inescapable hole.
It’s a simple and sometimes repetitive story, but Gibson does a capable job of telling it. He’s put so much effort into accurately capturing the details of the period in which the movie is set, that it’s immersive.
Having his actors recite all of their dialogue in a dead language isn’t just a gimmick; it’s another piece of the puzzle in making a completely accurate portrayal of ancient Mayan living. People hate reading subtitles, but to me this is infinitely preferable to watching some poor Hollywood actor attempt a halting approximation of what it might sound like if a Mayan Indian spoke English.
The film also shuns experienced actors, in favor of people actually from the region and in some cases, directly descended from the Yucatans the movie is about. Surprisingly, this works. He gets good performances, though it probably helps that you can’t understand what anyone is saying. Mel shoots it with the latest in digital camera technology, but rigs it in such a way that at times the movie looks like it was filmed on the fly by a struggling documentary crew.
The result is a movie that plays like the best National Geographic special you’ve ever seen. It feels completely authentic.
Read the full review at CinemaBlend
Charlotte’s Web (5/5)
I’ve always been a voracious reader, but my first encounter with “Charlotte’s Web” as a kid changed the way I read. E.B. White’s classic children’s novel has a habit of doing that. It’s one of those rare pieces of genuinely great literature that leaves anyone who reads it permanently altered.
Before “Charlotte” I spent my time reading “Choose Your Own Adventure” books about building robots. Afterward I found myself hungry for something more, and launched my growing reading skills at the works of young adult authors like Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume.
From there my tastes blossomed even more, to the likes of Victor Appleton and then to legitimate literary masters like Jules Verne, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. “Charlotte’s Web” is a special book, the kind of book that opens minds. Since its first publishing back in 1952, E.B. White’s masterwork has changed millions of young lives.
How do you turn something so culturally transcendent, so significant, so perfect into a feature film? If you’re director Gary Winick, you do it beautifully. Winick’s film doesn’t just tell the story of “Charlotte’s Web”; it captures the spirit, the essence, and the significance of E.B. White’s classic.
It gets the big picture, the broader strokes of what White’s book does so well. It’s more than a movie about Some Pig, it’s a story about exalting in life, celebrating change, and finding hope in death. Charlotte’s Web isn’t just a good adaptation, it’s a great film. A piece of moving poetry, the kind of movie that just might broaden young minds in the same way the book has for so many years.
The story is still that of a runty spring pig rescued from the axe by a young girl named Fern (Dakota Fanning). She names him Wilbur and at the urging of her father, sends him to live in the barn of the farmer across the street. Fern’s at that age, the one where everything’s about to change. One day she’s going to wake up and realize she’s a woman, but till then there’s Wilbur.
Separated from Fern except for her brief afternoon visits, Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) attempts to befriend the other animals in his barn, and fails. Until in an ordinary barn, an ordinary pig meets an ordinary spider, and something extraordinary happens. Wilbur finally makes a friend in Charlotte (Julia Roberts), the spider living in the corner of the doorway above his pen.
When he learns that before winter he’s destined for the slaughterhouse, Charlotte promises to save him. She always keeps her word. Her plan is to tell the world what she already knows. That Wilbur is some pig. He’s terrific. He’s humble. To save him, Charlotte spins those words into her web in a desperate attempt to convince farmer Zuckerman that Wilbur is worth saving.
Visually, the film is beautiful. Set in an indeterminate time period, Winick’s film is filled with bright colors and the beautiful light of a nearly storybook perfect farm.
Full review at CinemaBlend
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