For a man who is a faithful Christian, Mel Gibson shocks me time and time again with his perverse love of gruesome violence, first in Braveheart (which was good), Passion of the Christ (not going to bother) to Apocalypto (ridiculous levels of violence, see jaguar ripping man's face off). Really not a movie for people who detest senseless violence.

You paid money to see a Mel Gibson film?

Really?

Apparently tons of folks did this weekend. I read on Google news front page just now that his movie was #1 this weekend.

Theo47, are you serious? In this day and age?

Is it surprising SwampGirl? After The Passion the Christ?

Let's not get excited - Apocalypto only did $14 million, which is a very modest weekend for this time of year, not to mention having such blockbusters as The Holiday and Unaccompanied Minors as competition.

And I'm completely serious. The Passion of the Christ was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life (which I forced myself to see long after the fact on DVD), and Gibson's drunken rage should've ended his career forever. Thanks for supporting bigotry with your dollar.

Mel has always struck me as an Old Testament lover, rather than a guitar- and-sunbeams youth minister Jesus guy. The Passion is either a radical Catholic Old Testament interpretation of the crucifixion or a failed attempt at a zombie movie.

I saw the remake of Dawn of the Dead and the Passion as a fun double feature. My heart was filled with blood.

I really did think that Mel's "fall from grace" this year would have had more of an effect on his box office draw.

I think that moving this film to early December and out of the way of the Christmas crush was pretty wise. $14 million is quite a good opening for the post-Thanksgiving lull period. And it crushed the crap out of Blood Diamond which looked/looks to be a better film.

Hollywood likes to pretend that Leonardo is a draw even though it is painfully clear now that he was the interchangeable "boy role" for Titanic.

*discard

Self-discarding this video (discard called by original submitter theo47)