Rating: 
Summary: This movie is awesome!
Review: If you haven't seen Gladiator yet, you've got to go see it then. If you enjoyed Braveheart, then you'll enjoy this one too!
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning....VE Masterpiece, Gore Takes A Star Away
Review: Before you see this, you will probably think it fits into a couple molds. Maybe it does have some ideas that had been done in the past, but mix original storylines and characters that develop with some ideas used in the past, you get a nice film no matter what. In fact, this film probably deserves 5 stars. However, the one mistake that probably turns people off is the gore seen in the movie. From the first scenes where Rome clashes with the Barbarians of Germania, more guts are seen than in all other movies of 2000. But let's not focus on the faults (fault, only one, rather). Look at the emotion shown by Russell Crowe as Maximus, and the absolute despisable Emperor Commodus played by Joaquin Phoenix, this movie has it all. As well as great performances by Crowe and Phoenix and the immaculate visual effects of ancient Rome which make you feel like you're there, nice jobs were turned in by Oliver Reed (as Proximo), Richard Harris (as Marcus Aurelius), and Spencer Treat Clark (as Lucius), yes the kid from the end of Double Jeopardy, as well. Despite that one problem, this movie excels and sets a precedent for historical epics to come. Though it might not be brushed by Oscar's Golden Touch, this movie will set box office records, and who knows? Maybe more.
Rating:
Summary: Gladiator
Review: I have been waiting for the big budget Roman epic ever since Spartacus...and Babies THIS IS IT!!!!Gladiator grabbed me by the gut and didn't let go...not even at the end...my body and psyche are still reverberating from its impact. The only other movie to have so visceral a reaction on me was Saving Private Ryan,for some similar reasons but more frequently for disimilar ones. The impact of the incredibly orchesterated gladiatorial skirmishes tested my seat repeatedly but they were shot with such photographic skill and framed with such directorial insight that my body didn't go into total meltdown....unlike Private Ryans visions of carnage that ate away like acid at my very soul. Aside from the incredible photography, the intensity of the meld between storyboarding incredible angles and images that created such a sumptuous visual feast, and impeccable acting by a fine and long to be remembered cast... what stands out Most about this film are two things...The betrayal of devotion and Russell Crowe as Maximus whose will to decency and sense of honor made him a victim of the times he lived in. Good God almighty....there are few actors these days that could have brought this kind of raw masculinity to such resonance on the screen....but it is not just this that makes Crowe shine but his incredibly sensitive portrayal of Maximus as a man of the sword by his sense of duty, but a man of the soil in his heart. Crowes physicality and ability to translate Maximus to the screen is a performance worthy of an academy award...but it is Maximus who steals the show!!! His heart,his strength, his determination,his unfailing love for his family, his need for justice,...his Values are the Star of this film. He reminds me of Cyrano de Bergerac in many ways....and I can give him no better accolade than that. There are so few role models for this age....characters like Maximus are what civilization is all about. He lived up to the heritage and meaning of his name...there is no more...there is no better...than to strive for decency, to uphold honor,to value family, to recognise duty to high ideals, to love the earth,to defend civilization at its best, and oppose tyranny,to cherish life...other lives as well as your own. Maximus was a product of his time, an honored soldier ultimately betrayed. This betrayal cost him the values he lived by for a while to pursue survival...ultimately his values were the victors...and it is they that made him a Hero. Ridley Scott has given the big screen some of its most important and enduring images from Blade Runner to Alien..on and on...he continues to amaze with his ingeniuty at getting his vision transfixed in our minds...no less so here...his use of digital imagery to create Rome and the Colloseum alive with spectators is riveting. Joachin Phoenix is a wonderfully tormented Commodus with his deep and unrequited cravings for love and approval from his sister and his father to his vicious malevolance towards Maximus...what a contrast. He is showing talent far beyond the youth of his years. And the appearance of several of my personal favorites added all the extra spice to a film I was already in love with from the first battle scenes in Germania. These additional screen luminaries and legends were Richard Harris, duly sincere and remorseful as Marcus Aurelius, Derek Jacoby as a Senator hopeful of a new Rome,and the wonderful Oliver Reed, in his last role,as an ex-Gladiator turned provider of human fodder for THE GAMES. WOW!!!This is a film NOT to be missed,and the story of a man to be remembered!!!
Rating: 
Summary: an epic dwarfed by 2 bigger epics: Ben-hur and Spartacus
Review: The battle and sword fight scenes were messy and confusing. Maximus killed a (stuffed)tiger with just 3 stabs without drawing a drop of blood. An emperor of Rome would degrade himself to fight a gladiator? I returned home and immediately viewed Ben-hur and Spartacus just to easy my great disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: How Sweet It Is!!!!
Review: The general who became a slave, who became a gladiator, who defied the emperor... It is truely a compelling story of a former Roman General who simply wants to go home and be with his family again. After certain events, what happens to him goes beyond your imagination! No horrible acting, all top notch performers, 5 star musical score by Hans Zimmer, and an inspiring story line leads me to believe this movie is the best of the year, and the year anfter that, AND the year after that! So why are you reading this?! Stop looking at this review AND GO WATCH IT!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Without a doubt this is THE best film I've ever seen.. From brutal beginning to climatic end, I was completely mesmerized by this story.. Please DO NOT miss this film.. I agree with a previous reviewer who hoped this film, Crowe and Phoenix would not be over-looked at Oscar time..
Rating:
Summary: Mere words can not describe it
Review: This is a movie that will get you by your collar and drag you through a story that is rife with passion, foreboding, treachery, justice, revenge, helplessness, maquiavelic manipulations and whatever else you can discern from the brilliant acting of Russel Crowe, Joaquim Hesse and Connie Nielsen. In terms of cinematography, in my opinion it could not be better. The "real world" scenes and the CGI ones are so well integrated you can not tell them apart. Some of the effects during the battle scenes are stunning, and the first time you see Ancient Rome through Ridley Scott's vision you will be left mouth agape. The music score is very intense, and very well written. It conveys such emotional charges that I had goose bumps throughout most of the pieces. This is the best movie I have seen so far this year (and this includes The Sixth Sense, and American Beauty), and if you don't leave the theater in tears, or at least sobbing, you must be emotionally dead.
Rating:
Summary: Caligula Meets Spartacus
Review: First the bad... What surprised me the most was how poor the computer animation was in places; and how poorly conceived some of it was: the dream sequences were really asinine. In many ways, I thought it more like a Caligula style move than Spartacus, except with a restrained Nineties-ethic. The incestuous undertones were emphasized, but the only over the top depictions in this film were violence. Grisly gory displays of wounds, amputations, decapitations. People cut in half, gored, spitted, spiked, crushed. The Good: The script tried to make the villain somewhat ambiguous: if only the noble old emperor Marcus Aurelius had loved his bad-boy son a little more, this all could have been avoided. Maybe? Well, he was too villanous to really maintain the ambiguity. You couldn't feel sorry for the guy. But the main reason why this film works is the story, and Russel Crowe's terrific depiction of the iron-man soldier, the last great warrior in the Roman Empire. "Glory and Honor!" There is no sound history behind the story: in many ways the Roman army had already deteriorated by Marcus Aurelius' time. In other ways it still had two good centuries of strength to look forward to. Marcus Aurelius' time was neither the ascendancy of empire (the court scenes, and the depictions of the military suggest that), but nor was it the beginning of the end (as the narrative implies). It was the beginning of a time of transition from a semi-professional, highly effective military motivated by expansion and the promise of land ownership to a fully professional, less effective military motivated only by money. But setting aside history, Gladiator evokes the breadth of the empire, the idea of Rome, and builds a very compelling myth around the dishonored hero. As a story of male heroism, this is right up there with Spartacus. It's really, really fun. Especially if you like blood.
Rating: 
Summary: Rome is an idea, a dream, a whisper...yeah right!
Review: The bloody battle scenes are fantastic and are alone worth the ticket price. The acting is overall good; Russell Crowe is very good. But in the end, as a movie, Gladiator is a failure. The story is boring and predictable. The dialogues are corny and oh so politically correct. The computer-generated scenery is overbearing and looks horribly fake. If I have to see any more shots of the "setting sun," "moving clouds," or "fields of wheat," I will have to throw up. Ridley Scott is confusing cuteness and technique with art. Finally, for the people who dare say that Gladiator has anything to do with History, go back to school.
Rating:
Summary: hopefully this movie will not be overlooked at oscar time...
Review: before i saw gladiator, i had the opportunity of seeing the colosseum in rome, italy... i remember when i saw the colosseum i was amazed on how huge and tall it was... and when we entered the colosseum, it really was an amazing sight. then about three weeks later, i went to see this movie gladiator. when i saw the colosseum scenes, i was really amazed to see what it would of looked back in the acient times... and the whole movie was great to watch.. russel crowe is an amazing actor and you can definately see his talent in this movie.. i even hope that he would get an oscar recognition from gladiator.. even though there were violent scenes that i found hard to watch, it is an excellent movie.
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