the audience applauded

Load of rubbish!!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Seriously, if Jesus knew when to shut his big mouth, he wouldn't have gotten tortured and killed. He was warned many times to stop yapping nonsense but he continued and continued. I truly believe the Jews must have thought that Jesus was mentally stupid and decided to kill him. Jesus' followers (who were probably not right in the head also) decided to write a book about him and make up stuff that he apparently can do (even though the laws of nature would prevent him to do almost all of his stunts). This movie barely has a plot. If you enjoy watching Jesus get beaten down for almost 2 hours, then this movie is for you. I enjoy seeing Jesus get beaten up, but for 2 hours it gets boring. The true master of the world Satan barely gets a role in this movie. Satan has character, Jesus was just a one trick pony in this movie. Jesus never changes from the beginning until the end, he just goes around saying "I am the son of the God in heaven," which really annoyed the Jews and that is why they slaughtered him.The only good thing are the special effects, the "Freddy Kruegar" claw that Jesus gets whipped with is a pretty cool effect, the acting is good, and the directing by Mel is great. Too bad this movie is barely a movie. It is just a propaganda device used to milk religious peoples' wallets dry, and for them to go around and force feed this nonsense into modern society.Bad Movie, but great acting and directing.

This came out when I was 5 and my parents refused to let me see it. How could my devout parents not want me to see a movie about Jesus?Well, flaying, whipping, spear in a side, nailing, a suicide, an ear cut off, thorns piercing your forehead, etc. is not kid-friendly.That is not to say that's bad. The movie focuses on Good Friday, and historically it was a violent day. But no one under high school age should see this,it is too overwhelming for younger kids. (I was 14 when I first saw it)And about the anti-Semitic controversy, I think you should know that if this is against Jewish people then this movie is against Jesus!

The first time I watched this I absolutally loved it it was awesome it makes me think of Jesus all the time

I must conclude that the 7.2 rating for this movie as i am writing this is mostly due to people upset with Mel Gibson himself. The film as far as films go is a masterpiece. Truly amazing! That is saying a lot since I think most films of the past 20 years are awful. The budget for this picture was 30 million and it earned 620-700 million just in box office sales. There is a reason for that, the movie is great. If you are not religiously bound or simply anti-Gibson then you are in for a treat. 10+ stars!!