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10,000 BC [2008]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

To anyone who has ever yearned to see woolly mammoths in full stampede across the Alps, 10,000 BC can be heartily recommended. There's also a flock of "terror birds" (lethal ostriches on steroids) in a steaming jungle only a splice away from the heroes' snow-dusted alpine habitat. And lo, somewhere in the vastness of the North African desert lies a city whose slave inhabitants alternately teem like the crowds in Quo Vadis during the burning of Rome and trudge in hieratically menacing formations like the workers in Metropolis. That's pretty much it for the cool stuff. Setting movies in prehistoric times is dicey. Apart from the "Dawn of Man" sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, only Quest for Fire makes the grade, and its creators had the good sense to limit the dialogue to grunts and moans. 10,000 BC boasts a quasi-biblical narrator (Omar Sharif) and characters who speak in formed, albeit uninteresting, sentences (including a New Age–y "I understand your pain"). But let no one say the storytelling isn't primitive. The narrator speaks of "the legend of the child with the blue eyes" and bingo, here's the kid now. When, grown up to be Camilla Belle, she's carried off by "four-legged demons" (guys on horseback to you). The neighbour boy (Steven Strait) who hankers to make myth with her leads a rescue mission into the great unknown world beyond their mountaintop. His name is D'Leh, which is Held, the German for "knight," spelled backward. So yes, there is some hidden meaning after all.

10,000 BC is the latest triumph of the ersatz from writer-director Roland Emmerich. Like Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004) before it, it's shamelessly cobbled together out of every movie Emmerich can remember to pilfer from (though to be fair, the section in pre-ancient Egypt harks back to his own Stargate). Emmerich's saving grace is that his films' cheesiness is so flagrant, his narratives so geared for instant gratification, he can seem like a kid simultaneously improvising and acting out a story in his backyard: "P'tend there's this alien ... p'tend maybe he came from Atlantis or something...." Just don't p'tend it has anything to do with real moviemaking. --Richard T. Jameson

Editorial
DVD Description

From director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow) comes 10,000 BC, a sweeping odyssey into a mythical age of prophesies and gods, when spirits ruled the land and mighty mammoths shook the earth.

In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter D'Leh (Steven Strait, The Convenant) has found his heart's passion - the beautiful Evolet (Camilla Bell, When A Stranger Calls). But when a band of mysterious warlords raid his village and kidnap Evolet, D'Leh must lead a small group of hunters to the end of the world in order to rescue her. As they venture into unknown lands, the group discovers there are civilisations beyond their own and that mankind's reach is far greater then they ever knew. With each new encounter D'Leh starts to build his small group into an army. Driven by destiny, the unlikely warriors must battle prehistoric predators whilst braving the harshest elements.

Stills from 10,000 BC

Editorial
Synopsis

Director Roland Emmerich might have set this action epic in prehistoric times, but audiences can expect plenty of high tech special effects in this film from the man that brought INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW to the screen.

So it's not accurate....so what?
Review date: 2008-09-01 Rating: 8 out of 10

It's best to view this movie with the proper expectations. It certainly wasn't designed to be a realistic or historically accurate portrayal of the times, but better serves as a tale of human struggle by a fictional tribe while on a journey with other tribes to recapture their people who were taken as slaves by a more advanced civilization.

Yes there are many inconsistencies with this film as it relates to time, place, and languages spoken. However, it had great cinematography, special effects, and action sequences. The story won't win an Oscar but it was better than some of the offerings at the cinema at the moment. The acting was fairly good and although some of the dialogue was very clichéd and the characters made some weird and dumb decisions (like freeing a saber tooth tiger, and hoping it doesn't eat you afterwards), overall it was a fun action movie that the kids would enjoy. But if a science teacher tells you to write a report about life 10,000 years ago I wouldn't base the paper on what this movie says. Wooly Mammoths working in the desert to create the pyramids?!?!? Maybe not.



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Reviews


zzzzzzzzzzzz
Review date: 2008-08-31 Rating: 2 out of 10

I NEVER walk out of the cinema before the end of a film and I've seen some rubbish in my time but I turned this DVD off within 5 minutes of it starting ... I can't comment on the whole film but if the start was anything to go by, it must be dire! Absolutely awful.

A solid "fantastic" BC movie
Review date: 2008-08-18 Rating: 8 out of 10

If you like action movies, in a inusual contest (a fantasy BC world, with a eye to Conan and another to Stargate) is a good film. A classic plot (ransome and rescue), good action scenes (with a "brilliant" mammouths charge)with a minor cast and a director not at the best of his possibilities. Sabre tooth tigers, "raptors-like" predators, slaves' merchants and an "alien" bad guy..... too much for a "historic" film ? Perhaps.

Dross
Review date: 2008-08-15 Rating: 2 out of 10

this film is absolutely awful, the worst i have seen in a very long time, i just wish i had read reviews before actually spending my money on this rubbish, a complete rip off of apocolypto, but done terribly. A complete waste of time. DO NOT bother to watch this film, it is rubbish, the director should be ashamed of himself.

Hmmmmm
Review date: 2008-08-15 Rating: 4 out of 10

We seem to be getting alot of these films recently. Girl falls in love with boy, girl kidnapped, boy follows girl, boy and girl reunited. This is basically the plot of 10,000 BC, except the film is quite a trudge. Theres a couple of exciting bits with the Wooly Mamoth hunt and dinosaurs in the jungle and ending up at the pyramids (timelines slightly incorrect!), but generally the film drags and is fairly slow obvious pap.

Product Details/Specifications


Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321902139685
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-07-21
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 105 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2008
Language: English (Unknown)

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