Gladiator

Rating:
Summary: Great.
Review: This movie reminded me a lot of Braveheart. which isnt saying anything bad at all since i loved that movie to.The star of the move(Russel Crowe, The Insider)i thought did a great job playing his role and he really made you feel the movie not just watch it.It takes place a long, long time ago in rome, when of course the sport of gladiating was very popular.Russel Crowe ends up being a slave, and is forced to fight with a unique group of characters and overcome obstacles that are both physical and mental>I reccomend this to anyone who likes good movies.

Rating:
Summary: What we do in life, echoes in eternity...
Review: Simply a great film. Perhaps the best example of an historical epic in recent years, and yes, I find it to be better than Braveheart. I only wish that Russell Crowe would have been given his due three years ago when he turned in an Oscar-worthy performance in LA Confidential. I can't think of a better actor to play Maximus. Plus, no one else could've have been as bombastic or cantankerous as Oliver Reed (as Proximo). The historical epic hasn't died out yet.

Rating:
Summary: B-movie Epic
Review: If films were judged by looks alone, then this one would truly be a classic. The film is Ridley Scott's attempt at a post millennial sword and sandals epic akin to SPARTUCUS or BEN HUR though the final product bears a closer resemblance to CONAN THE BARBARIAN plus some added pretension. With GLADIATOR it's obvious that Scott really wanted to make an important film rather than an exploitive action yarn like CONAN, though his expository scenes are dull and lacking in the charge of his spastic action sequences. Still, even those sequences really don't work on quite the level they're supposed to.

Thus begins our B-movie epic: Maximus (Russell Crowe in what would have been the Jean-Claude Van Damme role had this film been made a mere 10 years ago) is picked (for very hackneyed political reasons) by the emperor of Rome (Richard Harris, seething with Shakespearean glee) to be his replacement, but the emperor's son Commudus (Joaquin Phoenix) will have none of that. He's a greedy, whiny brat who wants to rule so badly that he kills his own father, takes his throne, then orders his guards to lead Maximus out into the woods and have him killed. The plan goes awry for Commodus when the mighty Maximus (I smell a HERCULES spin-off waiting in the wings) escapes in a rousing and appropriately brutal getaway. He races on foot back to his picturesque commode hoping to be greeted by his family, only when he arrives they've already been killed by Commudus' minions. Our hero passes out and is eventually picked up by slave traders--the kind of slave traders who roam the countryside searching for unconscious victims of those corrupt Romans. You know the kind. He's sold to Proximo (Oliver Reed, sharper than ever in his final performance), a former gladiator and current trainer. After Maximus endures some qualifying bouts under the reluctant guidance of Proximo, he makes his way up to the much-dreaded Coliseum.

My biggest caveat with the flick is how hollow its script is. No emotion feels true; it's as if the screenwriters poured over BRAVEHEART in an attempt to transport that story to the time of the Coliseum. And with no help from Ridley Scott who seems to think that he can compensate for that lack of depth by giving us lengthy expository scenes and making his characters overly gloomy. Those expository scenes are akin to the political trial scenes in STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE, which virtually everyone will agree were dramatically inert, passionless, and, well, boring. GLADITOR's expository scenes are just as tedious, and while the dialogue is mostly decent and the performances are above par, there's nothing behind it all, no subtext, no character.

The battle scenes are easily some of the worst edited in some time. The very first fight (meant to establish Crowe as a fighting man's general of war) begins with nightsky-scraping flaming arrows that dash across in the twilight emitting a magically-lethal orange glow. As the conflict rages, the camera angles become increasingly narrowed and the screen full of flames and blurred soldiers in slow mo. But the effect becomes over-digitized in a strobe reminiscent of a consumer camera, subtracting from the realism and gravity of the fight. And instead of continuing the ever-tightening angle to personalize the savagery, a few mid-wide shots are tossed in. It breaks up the direction of the sequence and ruins the hypnotic effect.

Nevertheless, people are eating this film up. There is a ton of extra features on the DVD and no doubt it will go down as a classic for generations to enjoy -- *sigh*

Rating:
Summary: Best Picture of 2000, hands down
Review: MAXIMUS!!! MAXIMUS!!! MAXIMUS!!!

This was the best movie I have seen in a long time. Not since "Saving Private Ryan" have I seen a movie of such intensity, power, and grandeur as to remain with me for days after viewing it. Everything about this movie clicked. The casting is superb. The classic story of revenge is well written into the time period, and superbly acted out. The action scenes kick butt and leave you hungry for more, particularly those in the Colosseum.

If the Academy doesn't give this film the Best Picture Oscar next year, I will be highly disappointed. I think Russell Crowe equally deserves at least a nod for Best Actor, although he will have some tough competition in Tom Hanks (Castaway) and Mel Gibson (The Patriot). Joaquin Phoenix should also receive the Best Supporting Actor nod, his work as Commodus is brilliant.

An incredible film I will enjoy watching for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: A must have DVD
Review: I still don't understand why most people who review DVD's only talk about the movie itself. If you're like me, you already have seen a DVD before you buy it, right? So I'm going to tell you about what you really need to know: How does this DVD sound? How does this DVD look? Are the extra features any good?

First things first. If you haven't seen this movie, you need to go out and do so. It is THAT good. Okay, now that that's out of the way, we can get to the other stuff. We'll start off with the picture transfer. The picture in this DVD is great. I can't say that it's as clean as say, A Bug's Life or Toy Story (which are pretty much transferred straight from the hard drive to the disc with nothing in between), but I can say that the picture is great. As a matter of fact it's among the best.

Next: the sound. Now the sound is simply AWESOME. Not only does it have 5.1 Dolby Digital, but it also has DTS 6.1. Both sound great. The opening battle scene alone is great for showing off that killer sound that you have in your high end system. Even if you don't have a receiver that decodes 6.1, you can still get a great 5.1 DTS sound using the 6.1 sound option that the disc offers (you'll just be missing the one extra rear speaker) and it still sounds great. So as long as your receiver or DVD player decodes DTS and 5.1, you can get great DTS 5.1 sound. You'll literaly hear, feel, and see the sound of flaming arrows fire from left to right and vice versa. If you're an audiophile like I am, you'd buy this DVD just becuase of the great sound alone. While on the subject of sound, I must also mention that this movie has one the best muscial scores/soundtracks of any movie. The music just adds an entire other dimension to the movie, and suits the movie so well.

Finally, there are the extra features. This DVD has tons. Deleted scenes, documentaries, behind the scenes, etc. It's got so much that there is an entire disc devoted to it. I thought it was interesting to see how Russell Crowe really was outside his Gladiator character. This DVD scores VERY high marks in this category.

So all in all, this DVD is worth EVERY penny and then some. It has everything you can ask for! Now even if you thought the movie was only decent (there are actually a few that might think this), the other areas are so great that you still have to pick this DVD up. The only thing that I thought they could have added that they didn't think of? I think it would be cool to have an audio option where you can just watch movie with only the music and nothing else (the Matrix DVD has this option), but that's only becuase I love the soundrack so much. Now if this is my only complaint, how good can this DVD be? This DVD is that good, and then some. And more. Whatever your last DVD purchase was, well, I'm confident enough that I'd bet that it wasn't better than this one.

Rating:
Summary: Big budget, brutal, captivating and a visual feast.
Review: I watched this for the third time wondering if it deserved its popularity and rave reviews. It really does. The cinematography deserves five stars by itself. There are some of the most awe-inspiring visuals here that I have ever seen. And the more you watch it, the better it gets because you can really pay attention to the detail of the scenery. Then comes the great story line. It was just good writing and scripting. The characters are all very interesting and likeable and pitiful. Joaquin Phoenix put on a performance that is probably the envy of many actors. And of course Russell Crowe is great to cheer for. I don't think there is quite perfection here, but I have yet to see a film that is perfect. In many ways, this one comes close.

And for the DVD, this is also a great adaption to DVD. There are some great special features here. Probably too much for the casual viewer, but for the big fans that want to dig deep there is a bunch of good stuff here. And not to mention the superior picture and excellent sound.

Rating:
Summary: WARNING: This film is NOT historically accurate
Review: My son was bored in his history class, so I told him to toss aside those stupid books and watch GLADIATOR with us instead! This movie looked so authentic that I had to assume it is historically accurate, and told little Steven not to bother studying anything other than this film for his test on the Romans, or whatever. Much to my surprise, my poor Steven received a D-! I think it is irresponsible for the film industry to tout this film as a complete and accurate history of Rome when, in fact, it may be incomplete. Before you buy this to help you son get out of reading those silly books for history class, look into whether it is historically accurate or not. I have not read much about the Romans. I do not like to read much of anything for that matter, but it sure seemed o.k. to me...

Rating:
Summary: Now, that's what you call a real movie!
Review: Beautifully directed, great story and wonderfully casted. I think the director had wisely removed the unwanted footages. Another thing is you don't get to predict what's going to happen next, until it happens. What I enjoy the most is I don't have to suffer the bad languages in movies like this one. And the fantastic sound did take my breath away. This is a good movie to own.

Rating:
Summary: Missing a Scene
Review: Overall, the movie is beautifully laid out. However, in the very beginning of the movie, the one scene before the battle begins, where the Germanic people "moon" the Romans, has been cut out entirely. It was the Germans' last moment of defiance before getting their tails kicked . . . and they cut it! It makes me wonder what else might have been cut from the theatrical version.

Rating:
Summary: Arch, adolescent camp
Review: I kept waiting for this movie to get better. Alas. Each chunky scene in this self-conscious, overweight "virtual" spectacle just sort of drops out of the sky, connected by only the thinnest conceit, to what precedes it and what comes after. There's a feeling after a very short while into the film, that it might never end. The screenplay, its characters, the actors who portray them are entirely gratuitous, and serve no purpose than to justify the choreographed violence that takes up two thirds of this very long film. This is a movie that Ridley Scott made because he could, not because he should. The whole thing seems designed merely to show off the (art) director's flamboyant, and shamelessly artificial vision of a high-tech antiquity. The plot is nonsense. Why is our hero allowed to live past the first thirty minutes of this movie, for example? The digitalized cinematography is gaudy and overwrought. The actors are boring and the dialog is stiff where it's not plain cheesy. I bought this movie. I don't recommend even renting it.