paint by numbers

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2000)

Gladiator wants to be rousing entertainment, but it's like a talented painter doing a paint-by-number kit and trying really hard not to go outside the lines. It was such a faithful retelling of standard, cliche gladiator movies that I could mouth most lines before they were uttered. It's probably the most faithful remake in history except for Psycho.
Which is not to say it doesn't manage some entertainment value. Russell Crowe is well cast, Joaquin Phoenix surprised me with his range (by showing he had some), and Connie Nelson gave a subtle performance when I would have expected something more heavy-handed. But the action sequences are choppily edited and filmed through a haze, making it hard to tell whose blood it is spraying across the screen (I could only assume it wasn't Crowe's character's).
I give it a six; anyone giving it higher than a seven is very easily amused.