Gladiator

dionysus67

Moderately watchable epic which benefits more from the good cast (Harris and Phoenix; Crowe not at his best) than from the disharmony between story and film style. The latter's recourse into ultra rapid editing coupled to hagiographic slow motion in the Roman legions' battle with the Germanic tribes does not strike the right chord, especially as the film continues in orthodox style. Decent, but below older classics.

Trevor Tillman

While a classical story, elevated by its incredible ensemble cast, it's nonetheless undermined by being ugly as sin. Compositions so tightly framed that I had to check whether I was viewing a matted presentation. MTV-style speed ramps, choppy slo-mo, unintelligible action, harsh bleach-bypass color processing, and shaky CGI have all aged it poorly. Forgivable if only it were aspiring to pulp instead of prestige.

Nicholas Gregory

At least it's a blockbuster film not built around a teenage mentality, but is an old-fashioned epic, and is how a summer film should be: an ensemble cast, thousands of real extras, soaring speeches, well-regulated action set pieces, and even if it's melodramatic, at least it feels adult. Rewatching this made me pissed that Hollywood rarely makes even a faulty period film like Gladiator anymore. The house always wins.

Christopher M. Jones

the coliseum scenes are dope as fuck and the ending is strangely moving for how hollow the rest of the film rings. more importantly, Age of Empires II is like $15 on Steam, with all the expansions and everything

Michael H. CLAES

The excess of the Colosseum, the madness of the fight to the death, an epic breath carries Maximus during the beginning of the decay of the empire. A few melodramatic lengths slow down the rhythm of the action. === La démesure du Colisée, la folie du combat à mort, un souffle épique porte Maximus durant le début de la décadence de l'empire. Quelques longueurs mélodramatiques ralentissent le rythme de l'action. 3,5/ 5

CRW

I expected such a rating, what with all the art-house kids farting about. This is undeniably a great film, with a great score. It may be painfully hollywood, but in the way that I love.

Roscoe

A deeply silly, vastly entertaining piece of fluff that pretty well falls apart under its own pompous weight. There's good fun in watching Oliver Reed, though.

Jeremy Tamura

I was surprised that it was this good. The three main actors give great performances and the plot is really efficient. The visuals hurt me sometimes (I think of these so-called dreams of Maximus, which are close to me to some kind of MTV video clip, with horse running and the clouds moving fast). I also think that how the palace is shown is really far from what actually was.