Skip to main content

Spartacus: Blood and Boobs

Coinciding nicely with my current Roman empire binge I managed to catch the first two episodes of Spartacus Blood and Boobs Sand. This heavily advertised series scores strongly on graphic violence and nudity scales. The violence in particular tends towards the ridiculous with the mildest of blows cleaving through sinew and bone like butter, and literally filling the screen with volcanic spurting of blood. It took me a while to cotton on to the fact that this is actually graphic novel style transposed to the screen. Once you realise that the over the top style makes a lot more sense.

The series has strong characterisation and the storyline seems to be developing nicely even though we all know how it will turn out in the end. There is plenty there to keep me watching. I do have one gripe about the stilted "oldie worldie" accents that all of the cast affect. I guess they are trying to portray the terseness of Latin expression but none of the actors are able to pull it off to my taste.
Labels:

Comments

Stabs said…
Can I recommend Conn Iggulden's Caesar trilogy (books)? Very well-written historical novels.
11:38 am
mbp said…
Hi Stabs, yup I read and enjoyed them. I am a bit of a sucker for all things Roman. The funny thing is I wouldn't really like to have lived during those times and there is much to dislike about Roman civilisation yet it is all just fascinating stuff.
11:56 am
Cap'n John said…
It sounds like it borrows from the Japanese movies of yesteryear, Zatoichi, Lone Wolf & Cub, etc., with their all-too-easily detached limbs and their buckets of blood. It was so over the top that a sword slash down someone's back would result in a spray of blood, while wounds from severed limbs would gush blood like a fire-hose.
2:20 pm
mbp said…
Yup Cap'n John that sounds pretty similar. Typical battle scene (which actually occurs in first episode): Wounded Hero lying on ground swipes his sword at the legs of an approaching gladiator legs and slices clean through bone and muscle lopping both legs neatly off about calf height. Cue grizzly scene of crippled gladiator trying to drag his bloody stumps away to safety. Needless to say he doesn't make it.
2:35 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Android Tip 3: Sharing a Folder between multiple users of an Android device

Android has allowed multiple user logins for quite a while now. This is can be very useful for tablets which are shared by family members. Normally Android erects strict Chinese walls between users preventing them from using each others apps and viewing each others files. This is a useful security feature and ensures your kids don't mess up your work spreadsheets when screwing around on the tablet and should also prevent them from buying €1,000 worth of Clash of Candy coins on your account. Sometimes however you really do want to share stuff with other users and this can prove surprisingly difficult. For example on a recent holiday I realised that I wanted to share a folder full of travel documents with my wife. Here are some ways to achieve this. 1. If you have guaranteed internet access  then you can create a shared folder on either Dropbox or Google drive. Either of these has the great advantage of being able to access the files on any device and the great disadvantage of bein
52 comments
Read more

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p
1 comment
Read more

Lotro: The Forgotten Treasury

Throg joined a Kinship group for the Forgotten Treasury instance last night. It was an enjoyable change from the solo questing that the now level 55 dwarf champion has been mostly doing so far in Moria. Some members of the group had tried and failed to clear the Treasury before so we knew it would be challenging but we were lucky enough to have a well balanced group with Guardian, Minstrel, Lore Master, Hunter, Burglar and Champion (Throg). Throg (level 55) and the minstrel (53) were both below the 56ish level of the instance but the others were all higher so it more or less balanced out. [SPOILERs ahead] It is a well designed enjoyable instance set in a circular chamber with balcony around. As you enter, a boss absconds to a locked side chamber with his treasure leaving the fellowship to clear trash ringed around the balcony. Once the trash are cleared you have access to a puzzle which must be solved in order to open the locked door. Clearing the (including six mini bosses) also get
13 comments
Read more