Beyond the hype, Russel Crowe and special effects, not much lurks behind Gladiator's shiny armour plating

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2000)

Ridley Scott strikes again and creates a huge sprawling Roman epic. Forget Alien, the scenery created here is truly stunning and worthy spending money on just to see that alone. Russel Crowe is fantastic and is well supported.
By becoming an epic though, Gladiator falls into the usual pitfalls. It is too long, the story isn't strong enough and in places it is simply (whisper it) dull. The fight scenes are superb, but are spaced out by parts which don't continue the surge of adrenalin. Great epic, almost a classic, flawed, but worth seeing anyway just for Scott's wizardry and Crowe's bloodied face.