#21 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.You should too!: Centurion

The Film: Centurion

Neil Marshall is a name movies lovers should know. Okay, so he’s not a Tarantino or Scorsese, those are names your Mom would probably know. Marshall is the real deal though. He makes cultish, genre movies that are homages to other great cult movies. I’m not talking great movies like The Godfather or Pulp Fiction, I’m talking Road Warrior, Escape from New York, Aliens, Star Trek movies, and other cool shit.

His film The Descent is his most celebrated, but as I revisit his other movies, I’m starting to see that all his movies are pretty damn good in their own way. Sure, The Descent delivered great horror flick for the mainstream, but Doomsday, in all its madness, is equally as good to me. The dancing scene remains pretty high up there for me as weirdest, therefore greatest, of all time. Don’t forget Big Trouble in Little China (a masterpiece) was dismissed in its day, only to be celebrated later.

The plot of Centurion is simple. A bunch of Roman soldiers get ambushed, a few survive, and they try to survive on their way home.

Why to watch it: It is just fun to watch

Okay, so this movie is pretty dumb at parts. Like them going all the way to save the General, just to leave him, and not accomplish anything more. Kind of pointless. Also, going all that way just to start a romance movie three-quarters of the way in. The romance felt contrived, as if the producer was reading the script and was like “Woah! Where is the love story?!”.

However, the gore, the sword-and-sandal genre, the fighter scenes, all came together to make a really fucking entertaining movie. As Neil Marshall mentioned himself, if the movie was never meant to be historically accurate. Why should it be? It is a story based around a legend. Unless you’re watching this movie with the leading expert on Ancient Roman military history, than I think you can overlook some of the misgivings. It never really takes itself seriously, so you should take it the way same way.

Pay attention to this: The gore

Not that you could miss it, but the level of gore in this movie is admirable. I really don’t like the horror genre overall, so a lot of people get the impression that I hate gore. Not true. I love gore – the more the merrier with me. I even think gore can make a bad movie better. Think the new Wolfman flick. My beef comes when horror movies try to lean on the “creative kill” concept, which is really boring to me.

With the exception of a few Rob Zombie kills, some Saw stuff, and Troma, the concept is pretty unwatchable to me. That doesn’t mean you should feel the same way. Also, when gore is used just enough to get an R-rating. Totally fucking lame.

But Centurian delivers – big time. It shamelessly has heads flying in all directions, doesn’t cut away from limbs being cut away, and straight up uses digital blood spraying unapologetically.

Call me a weirdo, but I was pretty damn impressed with this movie. Sure, its plot looks like it was scribbled on a napkin during lunch after history class in high school.