A movie for the more philistine viewer

Rating: 2/10 (9 June 2004)

It is a pity that the type of person who thinks that this movie is "great" is the same type of person who thinks that a Clint Eastwood movie is better than a John Wayne movie, and who is interested in shallowness and simplicity, shallow entertainment with no depth. Such viewers would be perfect public at the Colisseum where the final struggle takes place. The movie is a rather poor remake of "Fall of the Roman Empire", a movie which was not memorable but which had some point to it, for it showed the way in which the Northern blonde people were shamelessly butchered which provoked the reaction which was to seal the fate of Rome. That movie had a more elaborate story and showed how a system can go wrong. There is a worrying trend in these epic remakes such as Gladiator, The Passion of the Christ and to a much lesser extent Troy (Troy is actually quite a good movie) for gratuitous violence and no real message, no real humanity or depth. It seems we have regressed to Roman times. It is almost like we have become blood thirsty and unchristian.