300 (R) ****

Wow, what a film! “300” is the kind of film to get drunk on. King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) must take 300 soldiers to Thermopylae and defend Sparta from the onslaught of the Persian soldiers. That’s pretty much the skinny on the film’s plot. The rest is sound and fury, except, unlike Shakespeare’s famous words, “300” means something. It’s about defending one’s right to live on one’s own terms, not on anyone else’s. The visuals in “300” were what I expected “Sin City” to be: eye-popping, intense, transcendent, gripping. It’s hard to make visuals that are truly gripping. But 300 does that, and does it damn well.

Starring:
Gerard Butler: King Leonidas
Lena Headey: Queen Gorgo
David Wenham: Dilios
Dominic West: Theron
Rodrigo Santoro: Xerxes

In Theaters March 3rd.