A second-rate sword-and-sandal movie.

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2006)

This could have been an excellent movie if it had set its sights higher. Unfortunately, the director settled for Hollywood mediocrity.
Joaquin Phoenix is impressive as Commodus, but Russell Crowe's Oscar seems to have been a belated reward for earlier work. He is a talented actor, but nothing much is asked of him in this movie apart from going through the motions.
And the motions themselves are often laughable. The movie opens with the general using siege engines against German infantry, firing heavy flaming arrows that are designed to set wooden buildings alight.
Even worse, he leads a cavalry detachment into the rear of the opposing force while the missile are still raining down. We have all heard about casualties from "friendly fire", but no competent general deliberately invites such a disaster. Richard Harris, as Marcus Aurelius, was clearly relieved that such an idiot had managed to win the battle.
The later action scenes were ludicrous, with lots of quick cuts to obscure the fact that the stunt work was nonsense. Where else but in a Hollywood movie could a group of gladiators overturn a heavy chariot by holding their shields down like a ramp? The real result would have been smashed arms. Russell Crowe then unhitches a chariot horse, catches a thrown sword, and rides between two other chariots, slicing the drivers as he passes. What ever happened to the knives on the axle shafts? His horse would have lost its legs.
Near the end of the film, the climactic duel scene in the arena was farcical. In real life, the mad Emperor Commodus announced his intention to lead a group of gladiators, widely regarded as scum, in a procession, and his mistress had him murdered the night before in order to avoid a riot by the outraged populace.
In the film, Commodus does something just as outrageous, apparently without offending anybody. He elects to put his life on the line to fight Crowe in the arena (despite being overdressed for the occasion), and predictably comes to a sticky end Â— just like the movie.