I'd had my eye on the movie "300" for a while. It caught my interest because it was based on a graphic novel and it was historical. I didn't have high expectations, but went to the midnight showing last Thursday. I was quite pleasantly surprised - a solid entertaining movie that got some of the main facts right! Even better, a bunch of crazy college students were dressed up, driving around the parking lot at the cinema, and yelling. Basically being macho. Almost as entertaining as the movie.
300 is a retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans held a pivotal pass through the mountains for several days against Xerxes and his Persian army. There are a wide range of estimates on the size of the army - Herodotus claimed 2.6 million, but even at modern conservative estimates of more than 200,000 the odds weren't pretty. King Leonidas and his small group of soldiers delayed long enough for the rest of Sparta and Greece to assemble forces and effectively defend against the Persians. An epic story to say the least.