I saw 300 last night. It was pretty outstanding. It's another one of those "no-real-sets" movies, where the entire thing is shot against green-screen, and just like Sin City, which was done the same way, it's super-stylized and ultra-heightened.
There's no real plot to speak of, beyond this: Sparta is a land of bad-asses who will NEVER surrender or show weakness, and Xerxes is a god-king who wants them to surrrender and show weakness. It's basically a bunch of battle scenes, but the art direction is so mind-bogglingly good that you can forgive the lack of story and the corny dialogue. The trailers and YouTube clips don't do the film justice, because trailers don't linger lovingly on an image. The film does. There are plenty of times where the action slows to an almost-freeze frame, so you can marvel at how gorgeous it is.
It's unbelievably violent, but done in such an unrealistic way that it doesn't get nauseating. I've also heard that people are treating this as a metaphor for the War on Terror. Some people say Xerxes is Bush and some say Leonidis (King of Sparta) is. First, you must consider that the movie is based on a book from before Bush was in office. Second, if you can't tell if the filmmaker is comparing the hero or the villain to our president, then it's not a very good analogy. Third, it's a war story. That doesn't automatically mean that it's SUPPOSED to remind you of the one we're in now, but of course, when you see a movie, or read a book or look at a painting, you bring with you your own thoughts and experiences. Most of our thoughts, regarding war, are connected to Iraq right now. That's it.
I don't think this is a deep, philosophical movie. It's simply a beautiful, blood-filled good time.

JURY DUTY PART 2
So today was the day I was be on a real live jury. I drove in and parked on the farthest possible spot from the building I needed to go in. The wind was brutal. It was said that the wind chill was -10F today. I finally got in and was told to go to a certain room. I got to that room and inside was a scruffy looking guy and a man in a suit on a cell phone. I asked where to sit and was told, "anywhere." I knew the client and his lawyer were here, but I didn't know if it was the defendant or the plaintiff. As I waited, more people came in and it quickly became clear that both the scruffy guy and the suit-man were both jurors, like me. After an hour or so, we were ushered into another room, where we waited some more. With nothing to do, I just looked around the room. The shiny, reflective table top that we were all seated around created the illusion that the people opposite me were the Jack, Queen and King on a deck of playing cards.
Finally we were brought into the COURT ROOM! We filed into the jury box. I was very excited. The stenographer was there, as was a judge and a woman who did nothing until we were all seated. She then announced the trial name and number and left. The judge welcomed us, told us the basic details of the case, and then told us that the case was settled this morning. He thanked us for our time and dismissed us.
I get to do this again in six years.