GUEST BLOGGER: 300 [A-]

Take Gladiator, purge it of all character development and any subtlety, wash it in the same style we last saw in the dream sequences from The Cell, and feed it the same pharmeceutical diet familiar to Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong, and you have 300. And it works. Really well.

Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City), 300 tells the "true" story of the battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas of Sparta and 300 of his best soldiers fought back the Persian army numbering over 2 million for 3 days by the means of strategy and sheer will. It's a great story, but here, plays more as a set piece for a theatrical bloodbath. The violence is brutal, as to be expected from both a Frank Miller piece and any movie involving ancient warfare. Amputations, decapitations, and impalings are frequent, satisfying the most bloodthirsty of summer movie viewers.

Technically, the movie is beautiful. The stone washed color hues combined with the well executed slo-mo shots and wide lens camera pans allow the film to straddle a line between historical battle piece and mythological dream without faltering, or ever suspending belief. It is truly an experience, a distinction many movies clamor to achieve, but rarely deliver. The only truly noteworthy performance is Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo, as she provides a calm intensity in a movie accented (appropriately) by overacting. She also is privy to the most satisfying kill scene, where every audience member not leaving their seat cheering should be checked for a pulse.

A summer blockbuster that both entertains and breaks new ground is rare these days. 300 delivers. There is something satisfying about a movie giving a viewer the same mindless joy they had as a 14 year old, yet being produced so well, the thought of classifying it a "guilty pleasure" never even crosses one's mind.