Overrated Entertainment for the Easily Pacified "Mob" with Dated CGI

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2017)

The New Millennium Begins with this "Time Machine" Movie that was and has become one of the most Popular, Award Winning Films in Recent History.
History is Tweaked by the Journey, 2,000 Years Ago, when Rome was Kicking Ass and Decadent as the Fall of the Empire was Beginning.
A Central Theme in Ridley Scott's Blockbuster is Rome's Politics, Corruption and Direction for the Future. But that is Hardly the Thing that Sold this one to the "Mob".
It's Epic Appeal, mostly done with CGI, was its Bloodletting, Hero/Saviour (the muscled up Russell Crowe), and its Simplistic Display of "Wrestle-Mania" Spectacle.
Joaquin Phoenix is the Over the Top, Effeminate, Incestuous, Megalomaniac Villain. Connie Nielsen is His Sister with Her Young 8 Year Old Son in Tow that Phoenix uses for Blackmailing Her into Submission.
Other Supporting Characters make Mild Impressions. Oliver Reed as a Slave (Gladiator) Trader, Derek Jacobi as a Senator, Djimon Hounsou as Crowe's Token Sidekick, and Richard Harris as the Aging Caesar.
Overall, it is a Lazy, Hazy, Sword and Sandal Modernization that has more Pretensions than it can Sustain. Not Taken Seriously it's an Entertaining Oscar Hog that is Overrated but Worth a Watch. The CGI doesn't Hold Up all that well, but in 2000 A.D., it had some Appeal.