I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
Warning: May contain traces of historic license.
“From the director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow”, the promos proclaim. Oh sure, they could namecheck The Patriot or Stargate or even Universal Soldier – but inasmuch as there’s a case to be made for Roland Emmerich as unsung (albeit somewhat hacky) auteur of the blockbuster age, it’s the apocalyptic trips to the brink of human extinction that he’ll be remembered for.
So there’s a pleasing symmetry in the director’s latest film taking it back to the pre-concrete streets. 10,000 BC packs an awful lot of pop-anthropological in-jokery into its two-hour runtime, much of it admirably spurious. It’s hard not to grin at a film that offers theories as to the spread of common language and tribal practise throughout the cradle of civilisation, but gives equal weight to the notion that these advances were only made possible because a human being made friends with a tiger the size of a freakin’ RV.
Eschewing the painfully vogue stylistic noodling of 300 (to which it’s nevertheless not dissimilar), but stopping short of anything as adventurously maverick as Apocalypto (as which it’s nevertheless pretty much the same damn movie), 10,000 BC maintains a pleasantly old-school restraint that you feel may serve it better in years to come. It’s also more pedestrian than those two movies, never really reaching the heights – or depths – of either.
Independence Day posited a society descending into complacency, as ripe for heavily-armed alien plunder as the Falklands. The Day After Tomorrow one-upped this thesis by making mankind the agent of its own potential demise. Does 10,000 BC, in depicting the moment The Average Guy learnt animal husbandry, astrological navigation, and agriculture, sow the seeds of those tragic flaws? Maybe so… but 12,000 years is a long period for the sequel to cover.
By Tom Goulter, Flicks.co.nz
Silly and utterly Cr**P
Really had the potential to be a good movie great special effects great scenery what lets this movie down is its bad storyline and bad acting if i knew then what i now now wouldnt have bought the movie would have waited to see on Tv .
The Flicks review says it well and so does Helena for those who think "10,000 BC" is meant to refer to a time. See Apocalypto instead.
this movie does for prehistory infomation what no country for old men does for conflict resolution
This was a great movie, the CGI on the Mammoths was really well done, and there was lots of Maoris. :D
Do not, do not, do not waste your time and money on this piece of extraordinary shit. Do anything else instead.
Emmerich says he deliberately steered away from casting big names, but shorn of starpower like Will Smith, Jake Gyllenhaal or Mel Gibson, the characters simply fade into the scenery as audiences find it hard to decipher who is who under the mud, hair and war paint. Fortunately, the impossibly clean Belle is kept in pristine condition, while New Zealand's own Cliff Curtis labours under a Nandor Tanczos wig. Prehistoric compared to 1966's One Million BC, this is a movie so bad our government should be demanding its tax-break back. At least Central Otago looks pretty.
As one might expect, there are campy moments and far too much reliance on God-like interventions in the affairs of early man. Less expected is that 10,000 BC works just fine as an action Western with handsome actors in striking costumes and a few CG predators, which are giddy fun.
The scenery is beautiful and expansive, from the snow-covered mountains and lush rainforest to the stunning desert, but unfortunately it's the human element that lets this film down. If half-naked men with dreads, dirty faces and immaculately white teeth is your thing, then you're in luck. Just don't expect them to say anything worthwhile.
Call it "Apocalypto" for pussies -- a PG-13 rating, puh-leese! -- or prehistory for peabrains. Just don’t call it friendo. 10,000 B.C. will take your money, rob your time and hit your brain like a shot of Novacaine.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 6th Mar 2008.
Release date: March 6th 2008.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
