Apocalypto

Mel Gibson follows up "The Passion of the Christ," his entrée into directing schlock B-move horror films with high production values, with an even more gory study into bodily torture and death. Sold as a mythic action/adventure about the fall of the Mayan empire, Gibson presents a blood simple tale of fear and savageness set amid a village of Mayans that are attacked by a rival group. Most of the community are massacred except for a group of adult males that are taken through the jungle to a Mayan city where their hearts are cut out and displayed before they are publicly decapitated as a sacrifice to the gods. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) hides his wife and baby at the bottom of a well near his village, and spends the movie attempting to return there to try and save them.

Rated R. 125 mins. (C) (Two Stars)