Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Photo of the Day

Roger Browne just kicked the butts of 5 fellow Roman soldiers in SEVEN REBEL GLADIATORS

This scene is played strictly for over-the-top laughs even though I've always find these kind of so-called OTT cartoonish violent scenes sorta disturbing. It's just a pet peeve of mine so don't read too much into it.

But seriously 1 - The most annoying thing about this scene is that Browne attacks these men with the slightest provocation which says our hero is easily manipulated which is not an admirable quality in a hero; 2 - these scenes always bring out the lack of logic in these films to the fore: in reality those 5 men would have overpowered an average built man like Browne in a second; 3 - are they dead or brain damaged or what? What is he going to do with them? Browne walks away from this as if nothing had happened; 4 - the damage to the tavern is fine with the owner. Doesn't the tavern owner think there won't be any repercussions?

Director Michele Lupo had tons of these scenes in his films, often with a midget somewhere making  silly commentaries during the action, and as entertaining as they are well they are sometimes a chore to sit through. I'm not against cartoonish violence per se; for example, I prefer the same kind of scenes in THE TEN GLADIATORS series which are equally OTT but not as silly.

No comments: