As good as Braveheart, but cooler.

Rating: 10/10 (10 May 2000)

When I saw the first trailer for Gladiator(around superbowl time), I thought about how much potential for greatness this film could possess. In a genre that has been ignored for thirty years, it's refreshing to see a movie that will no doubt be a catalyst for a surge of new epics. Russel Crowe = bad hombre. It's one thing to see a hero who displays excellent prowess with a gun - like the protagonists we love from westerns and cop movies; it's something altogether different to see a warrior slay his enemies with primitive weapons like swords, spears, and morning stars. I won't go into detail, but the battles in this movie are phenomenal. One last element of Gladiator that makes it a different type of film than Braveheart is the computer generated imaging that makes the ancient Rome real and possible for the movie. Also, this movie will probably not win Oscars like Braveheart because people viewed Braveheart as one man's(Mel Gibson) vision.
You can't not like this movie.