Just got back from a full screening of 300*. Rest assured, the previews are true.
300 is a Sportcenter highlight reel of over the top violence, manly closeups, and boobs. It's like Braveheart or Gladiator but with none of that boring 'Oscar winning' material put in for chicks or self-important movie critics.
It's comprised entirely of fighting with gratuitous slowmo, violence with gratuitous limb severing, gratuitous monologues belted out with extreme vigor, and gratuitous boobs with extreme nipple.
I didn't keep count, but it certainly must meet the Bloodsport Benchmark** for action movie quality.
In other words, it's not much of a date movie, but it's certainly Manlaw approved.
* The preview screening came courtesy of a Streetwise mailing list. Even though I am sure Streetwise would like nothing better than for me to express my pleasure for this film by posting a glowing review on my blog, I am still doing just that.
** The Bloodsport Benchmark: The quality of some movies can be judged purely by comparing the number of minutes in the film against its combined number of fight, exploding, chase and sex scenes . Bloodsport with approximately 9 fights, 1 chase, and 1 sex scene (11 total) in something like 88 minutes sets the gold standard with its ratio of approximately 8:1.
