Ancient Rome is a time that was full of homosexuality, chaos, and political corruption. Gladiator deals with chaos and political corruption-for the homosexuality, one must turn to the cult movie Caligula.
Gladiator starts off with Russell Crowe battling some German barbarians. After a victory using extensively flashy camera moves, he becomes a slave for various reasons. Can he win enough battles in order to have a chance to challenge the corrupt Emperor of Rome?
Gladiator is a long movie-not as long as Braveheart or The Patriot, but it feels like it. Unlike The Patriot, pacing is not such a big problem with Gladiator. Unlike Braveheart, the movie doesn't balance drama and action well. After an action packed beginning and middle sequence, the end of the movie (which, traditionally, should be the most action-packed) gets muddled with Roman politics. While these scenes are well acted and well written, they could have occurred near the beginning of the film to speed up the climax of the film.
Like Braveheart, Gladiator will satisfy the bloodlust of any medieval battle fan. Gladiator makes Braveheart looks like child's play with the amount of blood used in certain scenes. Russel Crowe is no Mel Gibson when it comes to acting, but he holds his own in an impressive cast that includes Derek Jacobi. The same can not be said of the actor who plays Crowe's nemesis. He acts on one note, making decent lines sound boring. Their fight scene at the end is really cool however.
I give Gladiator ***1/2 out of ****. In a year of such bad movies, Gladiator will probably reap all the Oscars.

I originally wasn't that excited about going to go this. When a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go, I apathetic went, and it's a damn good thing that I did too. this movie freakin' rocks. I loved it. Russel Crowe gets screwed over by the evil incestuous new emperor. His family is dead and he has been forced into slavery. What else can he do? kick every ass that he sees. And he does, with a vengeance. It has good acting, great cinematography, and the story and script are fantastic. It's such a good action movie. Seriously, I'm not jerking you around. If you want to see a gladiator kick a bunch of ass, rent his movie. Hell, I plan on buying it.

**** out of ****