First disappointment of 2000(oh wait... that was Scream3)

Rating: Null/10 (8 May 2000)

Well, at least for the 2000 this is my first thumbs down of the summer.
I hate to use a big critic as a reference but Roger Ebert was right on the money with this one. Too much of Rome looked like Naboo in Phantom Menace. Except I'm more forgiving of Lucas filming a place that doesn't exist. I know, I know Rome is pretty much history but don't even get me started on the historical inaccuracies.
I'll keep this short. Actions sequences are hard to get into because of all the cheap slo-mo(for great slo-mo see john woo's MI-2) AND they don't make much sense. Case in point: there's a battle with like, five dudes all heavily armed against Maximus. When Maxumus defeated the last one(slicing his head off) the guy behind me was like "YEAHHHHHHHH!!!" I'm like, "Oh yeah...it's real hard to kill them if they attack you ONE AT A TIME!" Bogus. The tiger scene, some cool trap doors but nothing speacial.
Most of all, there's really not much of a story. Basically, after a pretty good setup, Maximus is pretty much on this big revenge thing. And that's it. Period.
Keeping it simple? Sure but with a running time over 2 1/2 hours I'd like some more story thank you.
The bad guy: Commadus(SP?) Who cares? He's a whimp with hints of sexual feeling for his sister. Perverted? Sure, but not in the Caligula over-the-edge way. It's more like, we need something terrible about him. I know he's in love with his sister! stupid.
Positives, the opening is nice and dark. Moody to the core. The battle in the opening is decent thought not great. And the first Collesium(SP?) fight is clever. Russell Crowe does what he can with what I've already stated is pretty 2 dimensional.
Again, a major disappointment.
Overall ** mediocre.