Definitely worth watching!

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2000)

Gladiator is a movie which is definitely worth watching! It has stunning action sequences (such as the initial battle scene), incredible visual effects, and a gripping, interesting story. Crowe does an excellent job, but Phoenix, as Commodus, is the one who probably deserves the biggest applause. And the computer-generated reconstruction of the city of Rome at the peak of the Roman Empire's grandeur is simply breathtaking!

I would say this is one of the best movies ever... if it wasn't for the ending. The little speech that Lucilla gives after the final fight between Commodus and Maximus was the downpoint of the movie - it is so typical of big Hollywood studios to insert a final "message" by a character as a learning point of the movie. This movie does not need any messages or learning points: they are very evident. The final speech takes away all of the excitement from the recently-finished fight, and all grandeur from Crowe's character, since Lucilla steals the end. It was disappointing, and reminded me it's just another Hollywood movie, even though the rest is very good.