For the Love of Rome! What a disappointment....

Rating: 8/10 (19 May 2000)

Ridley Scott has made a real loser. The first third of the movie was tedious - the one battle at the beginning was so messy you couldn't tell what the hell was going on -- ok the horrors of war show that it's crazy and Ridley Scott was trying to make the viewer feel as disoriented as the film's hero -- guess what? It was done better in "Saving Private Ryan" and at least in that film you can SEE the fellow soldiers falling around the main character. One ripoff from a film. Also check out how close it comes to "Braveheart" in parts --- "Say, William Wallace is visited by the young queen while in a cell in "Braveheart" and that was cool - let's have Maximus visted by the daughter of the king and conspire against her brother just like the young French Queen conspired against King Longshanks in "Braveheart." Plus in "Braveheart" there's cool battle scenes, let's try that too. Not to mention the obvious, Russell Crowe sure as hell sounds like Mel Gibson, the only difference is he is so miserable in this film and there is no real heroic character development like with Gibson. When his family is killed at the end of the first act, the moral is that Hollywood truism, "behind every good man is a dead woman and/or child." It does pick up after that though. The best part in the film was the 2nd act after he's picked up by Oliver Reed and thrown in as a Gladiator - but even here the battle scenes are too messy and you can't tell what the hell is going on - at one point a Legionaire is cut in half by what I thought was only a wooden stick on the chariot - I had to be explained that "it must've been a blade" by my companion who came with me to the film. Now that I think about it, we were asking each other what the hell was going on a number of times, mostly due to the jerky camera shots and the loud noises over whispered dialogue. And I never talk during a film. The ending was ludicrous the "go home Maximus" and the "Lucius is safe" dialogue made me roll my eyes. There was little to no historical value to the film and Rome was pretty damn boring - plus 5 shots of the same part of the "majestic collosium" only verified that it was a CGI-generated shot. Christ, even the CGI birds were splotches on the screen...
Anyway, there are a few things that were ok - Reed and Crowe were pretty good. Phoenix was ok as the "unloved by daddy" emperor. The actress Connie Neilsen who played Lucilla was pretty good and well as Maximus' two "buddy" Gladiators. In short, a lousy script, well-acted but 2-dimensional characters, and messy camera shots made this only another film that disappointed me. A 6.5 out of 10 (D) --- Go watch any bit of "Spartacus," two scenes from "Braveheart," and the first 15 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan." You'll have the same damn movie.