The digital special effects were a disappointment.

Rating: 7/10 (5 June 2000)

I went to this movie to see Russell Crowe and the digital special effects. The digital special effects were a disappointment. The biggest being when Russell Crowe went into the Coliseum in Rome for the first time. I was not impressed by the panning around the Coliseum. A good deal of it looked artificial to me. I could plainly pick out the digital stuff. When they were building the Coliseum and there was a shot going over the under construction building it was obviously digitized. In the movie there was a shot from high up towards the ground of the Coliseum and you saw all these small people and they seemed Sim City like. Any scene that had a flock of birds was disturbingly not realistic and poorly digitally created. I am sure that they could have done a much better job. I liked Russell Crowe in this film and just mused to myself what it would have been like if Dr. Wigand could have gone into a telephone booth and come out Gladiatorman and slaughtered all the CEO's of the tobacco companies at the senate hearings. It would have been neat to see right arms flying and heads rolling. The fight scene at the beginning of the film was truncated and did not seem to be as effective as it could have been. Check out Braveheart. The fight scenes in this film are excellent but Russell Crowe does not look like what I envision a Roman to look like. I think of Kirk Douglas. Russell Crowe has the looks of a bloke in an Aussie pub. One of the best performances in the film was given by Oliver Reed. I really feel this is one of his very best. Richard Harris also does fine work as Marcus Aurelius. I did not even recognize David Hemmings of Blow-Up fame. He obviously doesn't have the Dorian Gray portrait thing going on. The Emperor is a puff and I could not help thinking of the Monty Python film The Life of Brian where the Emperor says "What do they find so amooosing?" I recommend seeing this film for the performances of Russell Crowe, Oliver Reed and Richard Harris but do not expect to be bowled over by the digital special effects.