Good

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2002)

First off, any movie with Olivier and Laughton in two major roles has to have some redeeming value. They are two of the finest actors I've seen on screen and they lit it up in Spartacus. Yes, Gladiator ripped off Spartacus in many ways and then turned it into a melodramatic circus. For the critics of this film, you have to give it the credit of being realistic unlike Braveheart and Gladiator which were poorly done.
This isn't a real Stanley Kubrick film so don't go into it thinking you're going to see something innovative and ground-breaking. This is just a movie. Kubrick inherited the movie and the script mid-production (I think the story goes) and wasn't super pleased with the result of this film. Too many people were pulling him too many ways. I missed the homosexuality references, but that's probably because they were disguised and I wasn't looking for them. Sadly, I'll probably never watch it again. Very long film, but worth a viewing. 8/10