Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 2.0
Mars Needs Better Movies
A predictable "ride" as maximus, the big strong, chisel-jawed hero, climbs his way up the ladder of opposition and difficulty, defeats his enemy, and gets to see his wife, in slow-motion, to some cheesy music. The universally evil and reprehensible Emperor sure made a good villain. No reason to sympathise for him at all. The best scenes, in my opinion, were such simply because of the difficulty of the production. For example, the battle bewteen Germanic tribes and Roman Legionnaires. Amazing battle. The scene amazed me, simply because i have not witnessed anything of that nature.If hollywood can't make something original, or believable, then it shouldn't make anything at all. there are plenty of fine films that have already been made.Good set design and costume dosen't make a good movie. Case in point: Titanic. Oh, but it makes money, i forgot about capitalism.The movie was so incredibly tedious, it's very very hard, to give it a second viewing without simply fast forwarding to the action sequences..... which would belabor the question "why did i pay for all the scenes i don't want to watch?"Want to see a good movie with elabourate sets and costume? Barry Lyndon. Want to see a good 'journey of the hero' movie? see lawrence of arabia. Don't waste your money patronizing Ridley Scott. He's fallen very far and in the process ended up dumbing down his "art" so far that every single Macho Man enjoys it. Watch ALIEN or the APPLE 1984 commerical and do scott a favor.