Great Scott!

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2000)

After weeks of waiting and waiting to see this movie, I finally got round to seeing 'Gladiator' this afternoon. I'd read a lot of reviews praising it, and I've always liked Ridley Scotts' work. Here he proves again what a brilliant director he is. 'Gladiator' has got to be the best Roman epic since....well, 'Ben Hur'. Russell Crowe is not a name I'd heard of till seeing this film, but I expect we'll be hearing a lot more of him after this. He is simply superb. He has a good mixture of toughness and emotion in it to make you sympathise with him, and will him on. Joaquin Phoenix's bad guy emperor is a brilliantly nasty, and probably a bit mad character, who you want to see get punished. Well, everyone is brilliant, lets face it, cos it *is* a Ridley Scott movie, and he always casts well. All in all, brilliant. 9/10