Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 3.0
Gladiator
There is a fight scene in this film where Russell Crowe takes on about 6 opponents. Dispatches them easily until he gets to the last one who he disarms and impales with two swords either side of his victims chest, who stands there stunned mortally wounded but not dead yet. Crowe stops, looks at him,his head cocked to one side with a slightly rye expression on his face quickly pulls out both swords and decapitated his victim to the roar of approval from the crowd. Incensed he throws one of the swords narrowly missing a high ranking member of the audience and screams at the populace in the amphitheatre " Are you entertained"? Well yes, for all the wrong reasons. And for the same reasons why this genre was rightly discontinued about four decades ago it fails to engage outside of the fight scenes and cannot be taken seriously. Good fun though. Average aged pitched at for content I would put slightly below 15. (One performance to watch this film for is the characteristically over the top Arab slave trader and ex-champion gladiator played by the late Oliver Reed. At one point he accuses an inn landlord of selling him " queer giraffes" because he couldn't get them to mate. Only laugh out loud joke of the film though.)