Gladiator

Rating:
Summary: gladiator will leave you spellbound
Review: I can't remember the last time a saw a movie where everyone in the theater was completly entranced. The entire audience at the Cinerama, downtown Seattle was spell bound by this film, including me. We were not sure what was going to happen and it was so visually compelling that we were lost in an hypnotic state, holding our breath for the next incredible event. Russell Crowe has become a star in this film and the rest of the players are perfectly cast. Bravo. I want to see it again.

Rating:
Summary: A Hero Will Rise
Review: Gladiator was somewhat very long that dragged in some parts BUT it was also a thrill when the action arose (wow!). Russell Crowe is easily one of my favorite actors and he did, of corse, a terrific job playing Maximus. It started off with a bang and ended with one too and yet somewhere between were very long dialogues that took up time.

Overall I'm not saying that Gladiator is stupid, because it's obviously not. What I am saying is that the length of the film just makes the viewer less interested. There's not doubt that Gladiator won't be a hit with thousands maybe millions but in all truth it just wasn't all that big of a hit that I expected.

Rating:
Summary: A Blockbuster with brains
Review: Seriously, I don't think there will be a better summer movie this year than Gladiator. Hell, i won't be surprised if it picks up a couple of Oscars along the way. Seriously. The film is visually scrumptious, brilliantly acted and sharply written. You could not ask for a better hero than Russell Crowe who keeps you on the edge of your seat with his unbelievably realistic performance. Joaquin Pheonix is perfect - he plays a very complicated character and does not ruin it by playing a one dimensional villain. He actually makes us feel pity for him at times. Even more surprising is Connie Nielsen - what a shocking entrance into films. Not only is she a brilliant actress, she's strikingly beautiful. She looks very natural in role and never overacts. The film, by the way, is not only fighting. There are some incredible action scenes though. Ridley Scott stays the most underrated director - I can't wait to see what he does with Hannibal. In all, GLADIATOR is a film not to miss. In my opinion (and I'm not joking), it is the best picture so far this year.

Rating:
Summary: Slow
Review: On watching Ridley Scott's recent motion picture, 'Gladiator', my mind is cast back to the days when, in the mid-80's, the idea of using a semi-naked woman to sell a computer game was met with hysteria and disgust. What am I talking about? 'Barbarian', that's what. Released way back in the mists of time (1987, I think), the game featured a Conan-esque man in a loincloth waving a sword at a series of increasingly-macho opponents, presumably out to steal Conan's loincloth, or his sword - he didn't seem to own much else, although I suspect that, being set in a fantasy universe, he probably had Herbs, 150 gold coins and a Wand of Seeing.

It had some groovy moves, too - including the first 'fatality', a 'flying neck chop' which did EXACTLY what it said on the tin. I only managed to play it for about ten minutes on a friend's Amstrad CPC464, so I can't really comment further, except that I remember there was a sequel which, in 'Fist 2'-style, introduced flick-screen exploring and mystical, non-human opponents, and another game called 'Barbarian' by Psygnosis which had nothing to do with this Barbarian. I think the original was by Melbourne House. I'm not sure.

Anyway, the poster featured The Man Who Would Be 'Wolf' from television's 'Gladiators' (at the time, 'It's a Knockout' was a recent memory), and Maria Whittaker, a Page 3 'stunna'. In the advert Wolf wore a skimpy pair of furry pants, which looked remarkably comfortable, whilst Maria, sitting at his knees, wore a fetching purple bikini outfit which looked remarkably uncomfortable. Wolf also held a huge sword, which was unfailingly referred to in the press as a 'mighty chopper'. At the time, Britain was a step from total socialism and Red Ken's Metal Legions ruled large tracts of the South-East of England, and this kind of rampant sexism was obviously unacceptable. Magazines were filled with feature ideas bemoaning the awfulness, whilst the game itself seemed to sell quite well.

Things degenerated later on in the decade, with the adverts for 'Barbarian 2' featuring Maria Whittaker wearing a pair of metal plates (whilst holding her own 'mighty chopper'), and the adverts for contemporary whip-fest 'Vixen' starring less-chesty Page 3 'stunna' Corrine Russell in a leopard-skin bikini (with a whip). Possibly the finest, most influential example of this proto-'lad'ism was the advert for 'Psycho Pigs: UXB', in which two puffy-jacketed 'wide boys' contemplated a giant poster of a semi-naked lady holding a copy of the game in a strategic location. 'I know which one I'd rather play with', said one lad. 'Yes, but have you heard the reviews of Psycho Pigs: UXB?', said the other. I think it was the use of the term 'which one' that caused offence.

As for 'Gladiator', il filme, it had some fancy, short fight sequences strung together with long, long boring bits in which people said things like 'You must follow your heart', 'Yes, I must follow my heart', 'Go on then, follow your heart', 'I would like to follow my heart, but...', 'No buts - your heart! you must follow it!', 'I understand', 'Good', CUT TO: INTERIOR: PALACE, 'Maximus has decided to follow his heart, your highness', 'I see', 'What do you plan to do about this, your highness', 'I plan to... CUT OUT his heart!', 'Brilliant, your highness - then he won't have anything to follow', 'Yes, I plan to CUT OUT his heart!' CUT TO: INTERIOR: STABLES, 'Are you sure you want to follow your heart?', and so on, but... very... slowly, with treacly music. Essentially, it was 'The 13th Warrior' with a bigger budget and more dialogue.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: I can't see how people actually like this film. It's VERY boring. They could have cut out about an hour and a half and it would have been much better. Roger Ebert got this one right...

Rating:
Summary: Long Live Rome!
Review: I really tried not to read any reviews of Gladiator before going to see it. I believe nowadays anyone who loves movies should avoid the "critics". So much of what they write ends up on the poster as a nice slug for marketing. Anyway...this movie was excellent. I am now a devoted fan of Russell Crowe. He portrays the hero as a simple man. That's how most heroes see themselves anyway. But he is not the only one who gave an exceptional performance. I thought that Richard Harris was wonderful as the dying Marcus Aurelius, Oliver Reed moved me as Proximo the former gladiator still looking for his dreams in the younger Maximus, Connie Nielsen was powerful as the frightened yet strong willed Lucila and Joachim Phoenix made me just wanna "BOO" him on screen as the gutless Commodus! Great sublime villian. I'm glad that movies like "Titus" and "Gladiator" have come out. They show us how we once were as humans during the Golden Age of Rome. Now that we are in the Golden Age of the Internet can we avoid the inevitable fall of civilization? Who will become our "Maximus" or "Titus?"

Rating:
Summary: Rome Returns
Review: Gladiator is a signal triumph, and as one well-versed in Late Roman and Byzantine history, I give it particularly high marks for what it succeeds in capturing about the period. Crowe comes across as a very believable betrayed general who energetically pursues his goal. Phoenix as Commodus turns in a splendid performance that actually makes the Emperor pitiable or sympathetic at times. This film truly marks a "Rome Return" for Ridley Scott succeeds in giving a contemporary pace to the ancient world for audiences too impatient to enjoy such classics as "Fall of Roman Empire" and "Ben-Hur". Scott is also to be congratulated for daring to portray another religion -- in this case both Artemis and Mithraism are referenced -- as the hero's faith, and avoid a Christian allusion for its own sake. As surfaced recently with U-571, the movie does not follow fact to the letter, but sometimes history is best told by fiction. Aurelius was not killed by his successor, but others were. Roman history has at least one example of everything seen in the movie, which form a brilliant amalgam. The armor of the legions captures their gritty variety, and the technical complexity of Rome's might is everywhere from the "headache tonics" to the army. I hope what was shown "inaccurately" will be overlooked and this film will encourage new Roman epics---ideally a film about Julian the Apostate, or the Byzantine Empire of Justinian!

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME movie
Review: AWESOME film. One of the best and most impressive hero movies EVER made. Awesome beginning, awesome middle and awesome ending.

Rating:
Summary: WARNING :::NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART..
Review: My Friends! A more wonderful movie is not imaginable!The stage arrangements of ancient Rome and German forests are outstanding..The actors are BRILLIANT ! And the sound effects-oooh- the sound effects!!!LISA GERRARD'S FANTASTIC and penetrating voice rings in the ears and recreates scenes from the movie again and again , long after you've seen it..Today, when there are no more heroes of courage and virtue , and no one dies any more for love or honor ,such movies is all that is left...UNFORGETABLE!!!A MASTERPIECE!!!!10000000 STARS!!!!BRAVO!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Wow!!!
Review: I usually don't like "sword and sandal" films, "spaghetti westerns," or films set in ancient Rome. But "Gladiator" bowled me over. The plot took an outstanding Roman general, Maximus (Russell Crowe), from the site of his greatest military victory, and made him persona non grata the minute the old emperor died and the new one, his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) took over under dubious circumstances. Maximus was scheduled for execution by the insecure new emperor but escaped and headed for his villa in Spain, but it was too late--Roman troops had already crucified and burned his wife and child.

Maximus suffered a nervous collapse and was sold into slavery. His struggle out of that and into "top billing" as a gladiator in Rome's Coliseum is best left to the movie, but I must say I was really bowled over by this flick. It had everything--an epic scope, great performances including Russell Crowe, the late Oliver Reed, and the ever-so-slithery Joaquin Phoenix as Emperor Commodus. Thanks to computer animation and lots of graphic design, we are put in the middle of a quite realistic 50,000-seat arena. The spectacles are fast, violent, bloody and (despite my every effort) intensely absorbing. And needless to say the scene when Maximus confronts Commodus, who had given him up for dead, is remarkable. This is just one wonderful flick!