A great epic that I hope will not spawn others...

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2000)

I was surprised opening night at my local cinemas only attracted 50 or so people to the 9pm screening, but I never use that to guage anything.
Visually the film is awe inspiring, with a visual feast that never lets up. In some earlier scenes gore was cut down (to receive its M15 rating here in Australia no doubt) with fast film cuts and close down action. Still, it managed to put the action scenes in Braveheart to shame. Various film effects were used, the most noticable being the blue tinge of night (or cold), or the rich red warmth of daytime (or warm).
Aurally I've never heard a better sound mix. You can literally follow a horse galloping from one side of the screen to the other with your eyes closed. The rear speakers get heavy use, with crowds and sometimes some very curious noises during battle.
The acting by all parties was well above par, apart from some extras who got a bit glued to the camera. You may notice from the start no accents are played up, so Crowe speaks in his Australian accent, Phoenix has his USA accent intact. This DOES NOT make the movie worse! Instead, it relaxes you, and also saves you from the rehearsed and sometimes awful attempts at accents that actors really burden themselves with.
Phoenix (who is finally past being "River's brother") is despicably evil as Commodus, so much so that I believe if you had ever met this character you might not think twice of punching him right in the face. Crowe however is now hot property thanks to this film, to which he deserves every minute.
The length of the film is not a problem (2 1/2 hours) as the pace of the film is fast, and could quite easily had taken 3-4 hours if the powers that be chose to do so.
This brings me to another point, the 'sequel' factor. Please Hollywood, don't give us even one more movie in this vein, as this has done for Roman Empires what Saving Private Ryan did for War movies.
Watch it on the big screen? Yea, unless you can wait and have a huge TV. Ridley Scott (of Alien fame) will have a great year, as Hannibal is set for release this year also...
Overall, A great movie, with some decent plot twists, that keeps you enthralled from the beginning to the end!
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Chris Gray is an avid Film watcher, DVD reviewer, webmaster, and most importantly an Aussie. You can see his Australian DVD site DVD-MAX, at this address: www.dvd-max.8m.com
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