You will either love or hate this movie. I loved it!

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2000)

That being said, I can honestly say to forget the 'reviews' from those who didn't even sit through the whole movie. That's just whack. But it really is the sort of show that some people just won't like. If you're a history purist, the story and characters just won't add up. But mostly I don't think the negative reviewers see the depth and get annoyed with the violence. The movie does have plenty of violence. But gore? I don't know what Mary Poppins spinoffs they've been feeding on, but there's a whole buncha movies out there that have more gore. Gladiator flashes the 'chop off the arm' or the 'split the skull' scene very quickly. You know it happened but barely see it.
There is much more to this movie than action or gore. All the main actors are good or better. I saw a touching scene here, a real feeling there. And hell, no movie and I mean no movie has ever before given viewers so much of ancient Rome to look at. What a great job of computer rendering!
For those who haven't been watching movies for 40 years, this is the same basic story that was the basis for the 'Fall of the Roman Empire', made in the 60's. Sophia Loren was Lucilla, Stephen Boyd as Maximus, Christopher Plummer as Commodus and Obi Wan Kenobi as Marcus Aurelius. Similar but different, I prefer Gladiator.