The singing,dancing Hollywood extravaganza goes back to Rome.

Rating: 5/10 (25 January 2004)

I was absolutely shocked by the rating this movie got here and elsewhere, I thought it was a poorly written, pseudo-histroric dribble.
First-off, the story. I'm pretty sure it's been ripped-off from "Fall of the Roman Empire", removing all original parts from it and replacing them with various "gritty" decapitation and disenbowling incidents. The characters are fac-similies of any cheesy action blockbuster role: the vengeful general-turned-gladiator, the power-mad emperor and the grieving orphaned-widow only searching for a little tenderness, c'mon!! The story evolution itself is lacking: the people of Rome are ready to rebel just because they like some gladiator's fighting-style, and the praetorian guard who kill Maximus' family and allies suddenly turn to help him on a whim. Any attempt for character studiy is abruptly interrupted by more gore-tastic antics.
Now the acting. Let me say that this is not one of Crowe's good acting days. I loved him in the "Insider" and a "Beautiful Mind", but here, he is wooden and amateurish: they say the indicator of a bad actor is his "angry scenes", well Crowe's look-at-the-ground-tense-my-biceps-ball-my-fists-and-growl routine (the very same from L.A Confidential, just different costumes) is definitely an indicator. Joaquin Phoenix, an amazing actor normally, is bogged down in his horrible, horrible, role. Even Richard Harris's and Oliver Reed's stellar performances aren't enough to save this picture.
Finally, the history. First-off, Commodus wasn't a power-hungry arrivist, he was a retarded, fornicating party-boy who had to be dragged to the throne. Secondly, all historians agree that Marcus-Aurelius died of natural causes. The historic details are so badly done that some latin shop signs have spelling errors (it's not my opinion, I read it in a film magazine).
It seems Ridley Scott is about to join the hallowed mass of directors with great technique but no regard to content.