Entertaining, yet typical

Rating: 5/10 (4 June 2000)

While Russell Crowe did a decent job in this film, the movie certainly lacked in substance. While I will say I was entertained, by the end of the film, I was very ready to leave. To start it off, not only is the storyline cliched, but a good portion of it was taken from Braveheart. In all fairness, any heroic tale will have similar concepts, but there were too many direct parallels to be ignored. Secondly, the acting was nothing spectacular -- Crowe did a wonderful job (with the little he was given to work with), but Joaquin Phoenix left his character as shallow as one comes to expect from a big-budget Hollywood film. There were two scenes I was impressed by in the film -- the opening battle, and the battle re-enactment in the Coliseum. The opening sequence was shot very masterfully -- I thought the camera effects and silence definitely added to the intensity. The scene in the Coliseum was pretty cool, too, but it lacked the depth and sincerity of the opening sequence. Instead, its use of teamwork and anticipation was stolen directly from the scene in Braveheart with the large wooden spears used against the cavalry. The storyline is very uninspired, the characters are shallow, and there is no need to use your brain at any point. All in all, the film lacked depth. It was what has become of Hollywood -- large budget = crowdpleaser = crap. Gladiator, you've failed as a film - 46%.