Great Acting, average movie.

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2001)

Well, this is a strange place I find myself in. I'm a huge Ridley Scott fan and a big Russel Crowe fan. But the movie lacked in several areas. I think that the story itself was very powerful but it didn't translate that well to the screen. I'm not really sure whose fault that was but apparently I'm the only one that noticed it anyway. It also never got my blood pumping the way I think Ridley intended it to. The battles were poorly shot and hard to watch, especially on the small screen.
I must give credit where credit is due though. The film is very beautiful and the visual effects of Rome were very good. Russel Crowe was, as usual, amazing and Juaquin Phoenix stole the entire film away from even Richard Harris (I was very impressed).
Overall the film was watchable but lacked the epic part of an epic movie.