Synopsis:

Upon the sudden death of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, his trusted and successful general Maximus Meridas (Russell Crowe) is unlawfully imprisoned and condemned to the gladiator games by Marcus' twisted son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). As the new emperor, Commodus fears Maximus could use his heroic stature to depose him and become leader himself. But Maximus gains fame as a gladiator and uses his celebrity to cause further damage to Commodus' tenuous hold on the susceptible Roman people, hoping to inspire them to rediscover their lost values and overcome the corruption that is eating away at them. These actions prompt Commodus to square off mano a mano with Maximus in the Colisseum with the fate of Rome at stake.

The Freak's Rating: B- : Hearing that a film was going to tackle Roman gladiators, I was as pumped as ever to see Gladiator.  I was not disappointed.  The action and set design in Gladiator is amazingly detailed.  Cinematography and CGI to recreate the epic nature of the Roman Coliseum is done perfectly.  I have been to Rome and walked among the aged pillars of the Coliseum.  This film brought me right back there.

Russell Crowe has never performed better than he does as Maximus in Gladiator.  I've heard that said many times, yet still don't buy it.  American Gangster was a great film, as was A Beautiful Mind.  Crowe is a good actor and we're bound to see him in countless more films.  He projects a magnetism on the screen that makes you gravitate towards the humanity in his characters.  He may have PR issues outside of film, but on the screen he is brilliant.

Joaquin Phoenix is superb as the evil Commodus, stealing every scene with his easily despicable depiction.  My only problems with the film stem from overdone CGI at times and realism of the battles.  Overall though, Gladiator is an action-packed dramatic period piece worthy of your time.

Sebastian's Rating: A- : probably his only good movie, probably more but i cant think of any on the top of my head except proof of life and american ganster cause they have been the only movies ive seen in the past 2 months :S

Brian's Rating: A : I swear that whatever Russell Crowe touches turns to gold.  He has been in many highly acclaimed movies, and this is one of them, and also one of the few movies I own.  I recently viewed the movie again to stick with the Ridley Scott theme after watching American Gangster.

I liked this movie from the first five minutes of watching it.  I fell in love with good musical scores back in high school when I learned to play the imperial march on my euphonium.  A friend of mine had a large insurance settlement that he spent on pimping a new truck with a top notch stereo.  We would spend hours driving around listening to many movie soundtracks.  It seems like there were more composed musical scores back in the late 80's and 90's, but maybe its just my memory.  With this background, I quickly became attached with Hans Zimmer after seeing "The Peacemaker" and hearing the score he composed for it.  I knew he did Gladiator too, and I was not disappointed when the opening scene was masterfully interlaced by a riveting composed score.  From that point on, this movie could do no wrong form my newly biased point of view.  This is a great soundtrack.  on par with the unheralded "Peacemaker" soundtrack.

The movie itself is shot well, with good camerawork, and good story boarding.  Russell Crowe does a great job playing the fictional Maximus, the hero of the film.  Early historical fiction is fascinating to me and this film does a good job of depicting it, although there are a few hiccups like when they show mass produced fliers 1300 years before the printing press.  The movie is not relating a historical account, it is a historical fiction, and so I forgive the historical inaccuracies of gladiatorial combat, as well as some other things.

My other critique of the movie has to do with the whiny acting of Joaquin Phoenix during a few scenes.  He sounds like Mark Hammil on the Cloud City Reactor bridge.  I realize he is supposed to be a crazed immature ruler, but he didn't have to sound like he was ashamed of spilling the milk.

I think this movie won some Academy Awards or at least got nominated(I am too lazy to look up whether it beat Crouching Tiger that year), however I felt it was cheated out of the award it should have won, best musical score.  "Crouching" won that if I recall, and although it was good, it did not match what Hans Zimmer put together.

Angie's Rating: A : Acting gets an A, plot A, cinematography A.  I agree with the "Freaks" comments and review.  If you haven't seen this, you should definitely rent it.

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