Gladiator

December 11, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 165 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Movies For Guys’ Original Review of the Theatrical Release

Gladiator

Gladiator is Ridley Scott’s attempt at an epic in the same vein as Braveheart. He succeeds in creating an epic at least. It’s a bladder buster at nearly 3 hours and moves at a pace only slightly better than an insurance seminar.

Set during the peak of the Roman Empire, the story revolves around Maximus, one of the best General’s in Emperor Marcus Aurelias’ army. The emperor is dying and makes his wishes known that Maximus be his successor instead of his son Commodus. As you might expect, going through life with a name like Commodus, and then being passed over by his own father doesn’t sit well with the Caesar’s son. He orders the death of Maximus, who manages to escape and become a gladiator while hiding his identity. He will attempt to return to Rome to ultimately seek his revenge.

Lots of people have predicted this to be the movie that makes Russell Crowe a mega-star as he stars here as Maximus, our Gladiaor. I’m not sure that’s going to happen. His performance is fine, but this is a bit of a tough movie to watch. The movie opens with a battle scene that had me thinking this flick was going to absolutely rock. But even before the scene was over, Ridley Scott started mucking with the picture. During the climax of the battle he dropped the frame rate and suddenly it’s like we’re watching the movie in Real Video or something. Whether this was done for artistic effect or perhaps to hide a problem such as cheap special effects, it was annoyingl and really hurt my enjoyment of the film.

The mainstream critics so far seem to really like this movie and many people are predicting it is going to do really big business. It barely gets 3 stars on our scale, and I have no desire to see it again at least until it hits DVD. I have two big problems with the movie, the first is that this movie is dark in every regard. It’s even shot so that every scene looks overcast and gloomy. Combine that with the length of the movie, a terribly slow pace, effects that are downright cheesy, and summer blockbusters just around the corner, and I do not see this doing quite the level of business many are predicting.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 3 Stars, Connie Nielsen, DVD, Drama, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed, R, Russell Crowe