One of the worst films ever made. Seriously.

Rating: 1/10 (9 May 2007)

Whenever I ask friends what their favorite film of all time is, I always try to follow up by asking what they would consider their most unfavorite film as well. The answers can be very telling. My least favorite film is Mel Gibson's "The Patriot". Aside from a complete and utter disregard for historical accuracy, it is so obvious and ridiculous in its manipulation of hokey emotionality, that I can only imagine that it will go down in history as one of the worst films ever made. Among my strongest complaints: 1 - "The Dragoon" suffers from the overblown, overwritten, overevil, scenery chewing villain complex unexcelled in the history of cinema, even as Mel Gibson villains go. Honestly, I would not have been surprised in the least if he had demanded to be brought a box of kittens, puppies and baby ducks, and then jumped up and down on the box, in slow motion, allthewhile cackling maniacally. To prove his evilness, he has an entire congregation locked into a church, and then has the church burned to the ground, to teach the rebels a lesson. The church literally burns completely down, but then in the ashes, one character finds a silver necklace, to prove that his love has died in the holocaust. Actually, the necklace must have been made of titanium, as it did not melt, or even scorch in the firestorm. 2 - Gibson's Ninja Children. When Gibson's oldest son is arrested, he and his several dozen motherless children go into the woods on a rescue mission, after one bit of instruction "Aim low, aim slow", the children are transformed into perfect marksmen, unaffected by the multiple killings each of them commits. Every shot kills a soldier, and not one of them gets the slightest scratch, or shows any emotion at having killed people.
Oh, I could go on, but even thinking of this trainwreck gives me such a headache that I really ought to stop.