Mel Gibson's new film "Apocalypto" is going to be very reminiscent of "Passion of the Christ." Gibson used Aramaic and Latin to tell his story of Christ's crucifixion, and now he is using Yukatek Maya language to tell the story of the decline of the Maya civilization. The movie takes place in Central Amerca before the Spanish arrive. Gibson used a cast of unknown actors, many of which had no prior experience. Most of them were locals to Catemaco and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz where the movie was shot. The actors were also recruited from Mexico City, the Yucatán, Los Tuxtlas and Veracruz.

The idea behind the movie is that Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is a male member of a village taken over by a Maya war party. The women captured are sold as slave while the men are to take part in a sick and savage ritual. As a sacrifice to the Moon God they must run in pairs to their freedom. Gibson screened the movie for a Native American audience with positive reviews.

The is rated R and it contains a lot of violence and fight scenes. I hate a lot of violence but the historical context and story line sound really good. I have heard that the carnage is a bit over the top and that it may get in the way of the stroytelling, but "Passion" was over the top and people loved that. I just feel bad that Gibson had to ruin his good name with his drunkeness and his racism. I have a feeling people aren't going to give this movie a fair chance, which doesn't hurt Gibson as much as it will hurt the actors in the film who have worked their asses off to make this movie spectacular. It's out this weekend.

Oh, one last thing - do not look this movie up on Wikipedia because it gives you a play by play of the entire movie and is full of spoilers.

--Sue