A message for Russell Crowe.

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2001)

Ridley Scott's career is strange. He made the great Duelists and the Alien in the 1970's. Blade Runner and Legend were mixed bags. Black Rain was good and Thelma and Louise was great. Then he immediately made the boring 1492.
This year he made a comeback with the Gladiator, which was good, and Hannibal which was awful. The casting of Russell Crowe, the battle scenes, the supporting cast including the late Oliver Reed, were great. I couldn't picture Pheonix as a Roman and I have preferred to see Jude Law. A lot of people don't realize this is essentially a remake of the old 1964 film the Fall of the Roman Empire which flopped and ended the era of big spectacular epics which had started in 1949 with Samson and Delila.
Overall I would give this film 3 and 1/2 stars and I would classify it as a decent effort. But it definitely was not the best film of 2000.