Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 1.0
Oh so overrated. ..
Gladiator is far, far less entertaining than the big sword'n'sandal epics from the fifties and sixties. Russel Crowe's Maximus could have been far more imposing as a character than he is now (he spends most of the film as a brooding wimp). Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus is a weak, immature villain who never really poses a major threat to the hero. The story is full of illogical events, the CGI recreation of Rome is dodgy, and the historical context... well, the less said the better. And the fight scenes are shot and edited in such a way that they hurt the spectator's eyes AND it is nigh impossible to make out what is going on (with the exception of the final duel, where the freneticism makes place for more traditional camerawork; unfortunately, it isn't a very suspenseful or exciting one). I'm probably giving this movie one star less than it deserves, but nevertheless I was very, very disappointed. Anthony Mann's Fall Of THe Roman Empire wasn't perfect, but it treated the same historical subject matter in a much better way than this.