Hit, hit, miss...hit

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2001)

This movie reaches out and offers you many things, as if on a large, golden platter, and I enjoyed all of the fare that I could actually swallow. The visuals were grand and satisfying, almost haunting - particularly the opening battle with the Germanic tribe(s) in the forest (which was stunning), and first historic recreational battle in the Big Ring. The costumes were very good. Oliver Reed stood out as thoroughly enjoyable and believable; and it was nice to have a face that was fresh (to me) in the starring role of a budget monster, instead of, say, Mel Gibson's.
But though Crowe was good, I don't think he was better than Geoffrey Rush in Quills, who also had the nomination. Crowe showed depth but no remarkable vulnerability; Rush had both. Joaquin Phoenix put good effort into his role as the naughty Commodus, with just that precisely awful affect that you could see his effort to do so. He engaged in some intense acting that looked like that - intense acting (a bit like Angus MacFadyen as Robert the Bruce in Braveheart, but more obvious). Commodus' emotions looked drummed up from the actor, not flooding up from the natural depravity of the man who brought back the Games.
Nevertheless the movie still has a sum greater than its parts (no easy feat in the whirlwind of filmmaking's many disjointed pieces). I've seen it twice and would see it again.