The Passion of the Christ was honestly a good movie. I was an atheist way back when I first saw it and even I said it was a well done movie way back then. It explains everything that is going on so you do not need to have any knowledge of scripture, and it is written and filmed in such a way that all the characters are interesting and you sympathize with them. Mel did a fantastic job creating a believable ancient world based around the story of Jesus.

Apocalypto was also a very well done film that really put you into a story about people trying to survive in a brutal and exotic but believable world that is based around history. He doesn't gloss over the brutality of what is known of the Aztec religious practices, including human sacrifice, slavery, etc.