Gladiator

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2006)

You have to hand it to Gladiator: few films make disemboweling look this sexy. Veteran director Ridley Scott takes no prisoners in his epic vision of Imperial Rome, throwing us face first on the Coliseum floor and pounding us until we beg for mercy. So skillfully delivered is this sturm und drang -- and so perfect a lead is actor Russell Crowe -- that the film's shortcomings are all but buried beneath the sheer awesome spectacle.
Crowe plays General Maximus, chief legionnaire for the aging Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). A fierce fighter and canny tactician, Maximus wants nothing more than to mop up a few Huns and go back to Spain where his family awaits. But politics intervene and he soon finds himself in the middle of a power play between the emperor and his weasel son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Marcus wants Maximus to rule as a regent until the Senate can take control, making Rome a true republic.