The movie is way over-rated!

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2000)

Several excellent action sequences and a strong performance by Russell Crowe can not make up for a movie that's too long. The excitement of the film is front loaded, and all the interesting points of the film are exhausted by the middle of the film. A lot of time is wasted with countless redundant scenes establishing and re-establishing that (1) the new emperor is a spoiled insecure rodent, and (2) "gee, things would sure be swell if Rome was a Republic again!" The emperor's conspiring sister is played poorly by Connie Nielson, who couldn't act her way out of a high school play. Joaquin Phoenix spends most of his time trying to pull off being demented but comes across just looking bitter. This movie is worth the money if you're looking for exciting fight scenes, but plan on making lots of trips to the concession stand during the dialogue scenes. You can afford to miss them and still be able to figure out every single thing that's going on. *SPOILER WARNING* This film is total fiction, of course. However, even in fiction there's a limit to believability. For example, I hope the producers don't actually expect us to believe that after 25 years the emperor of Rome changes his mind about the morality of having an empire the day before he dies, or that the Roman Republic could have been restored in the second century by a single man!