The 300

I went to watch the "300" with Craig and Mel Friday night, and I have to say, sitting elbow to elbow in a packed theater with two dudes, while watching a bunch of chest bearing, underwear clad Spartans fight definitely tests your ability to block any questions of sexuality to focus on the movie. Luckily, the "300" lived up to its billing as pure exciting "eye candy" and perhaps the best film of the year. (Photo courtesy of MSNBC)

In 480 BC, 300 Spartans lead by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) went to Thermopylae (Greek translation: Hot Gates) to face the largest amphibious attack known to man, a Persian attack assembled by the living God (megalomaniac) Xerxes. Of course since the history of this battle wasn't penned until 50-years later by Greek historian, Herodotus in his accounts of the Greco-Persians War in 430 BC, we will never know the exact account of what went down, but Frank Miller and Lynn Varley did an excellent job of a first-person narrative in their graphic novel, "The 300", as told by a surviving red-caped Spartan, harking back to the oral-history of the time. The movie was as splendid example of a war-action flick as possible, combining art and form with drama and spirit spawning every desirable emotion from this genre.

You can't help but leave the theater with thoughts of your own sacrifices and resolutions for your country. The Spartan Queen, Gorgo (played by Lena Headley) is both sensuous and strong with a unique combination of form and pulchritude-Spartan in both manner, loyalty and action. The Spartan men seek a beautiful death held by only those chivalrous warriors forged by a hammer from iron into a sword. There aren't any fat-bodies or cowards wearing a red-cape and carrying the Spartan sword. The Spartans' phalanx is as impenetrable and strong as the Thermopylae pass itself. The moxie of legends, even without a movie of this quality, the story alone is enough to have Tom Cruise impose the same tactics in "the Last Samurai".

Click here for the official site of the movie. 300 merch can be purchased here. And finally, a link to the movie's music and video game.