Beefcake! Blood! Body slams! Boring! Boring? Well, not quite, but at 150 minutes, "Gladiator" isn't entirely the thrilling, action-packed Roman epic some fans of the genre were expecting.
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08/30/09
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Gladiator (2000)
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Reviews Counted:153
Fresh:118
Rotten:35
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Ridley Scott and an excellent cast successfully convey the intensity of Roman gladitorial combat as well as the political intrigue brewing beneath.
Runtime: 3 hrs 1 min
Genre: Action/Adventure
Box Office: $187,344,551
Synopsis: Ridley Scott (BLADE RUNNER, ALIEN) transports Hollywood to second-century Rome in this rousing historical epic that proudly harkens back to such films as BEN-HUR and SPARTACUS. Russell Crowe plays... [More]
Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Richard Harris, Connie Nielsen
Director: Ridley Scott
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Reviews for Gladiator
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10/18/08
Scott triumphantly transports us back to the Roman Empire circa 180 A.D. with a painter’s eye for detail, a proven talent for manufacturing exotic realities (such as the future shock of Blade Runner) and a sweet tooth for utter spectacle.
08/07/08
Meaty and satisfying.
02/20/08
If a gladiator film doesn't work as spectacle or as bloodthirsty action, what's left? Drama? It's dead on that level, too...
02/14/08
The film is good, at times grizzly, fun -- of epic proportions.
07/14/07
Ultimately, Gladiator is an honorable and inoffensive spectacle with nothing extraordinary to recommend it.
04/27/07
Top CriticThough the digital effects lack the weight and conviction of their equivalents in old Cecil B. De Mille movies, Ridley Scott's sword-and-sandal epic has some of the intensity of old Hollywood in terms of storytelling, spectacle, and violence.
02/06/07
Top CriticA Roman version of Ben-Hur, Gladiator succeeds on only slightly more levels than it fails.
12/27/06
Notwithsdanding the blood, gore, and CG effects, this is an old-fashioned historical saga, a throwabck to the sand-and-sandals epics of Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur.
07/28/06
The cast is strong (notably Nielsen as Commodus's vacillating sister, and the late Oliver Reed, unusually endearing as a gladiator owner), the pacing lively, and the sets, swordplay and Scud catapults impressive.
06/24/06
Gladiator is a movie that while watching, you can enjoy; for a while.
09/30/05
There's careful thought evident in suggesting what can only be conjectured. If you're going to enjoy this entertainment, don't be overly preoccupied with historical accuracy.
05/16/05
It's an exciting yarn...and does not disappoint the action junkie. It's just not great.
04/09/05
Listen to the audience as they leave the theatre. Are they talking about being moved by honor and justice, or going 'wow' at the bloodshed so spectacularly delivered?
01/15/05
Scott...has delivered the first Roman Empire epic in more than 30 years and it's a doozy.
06/26/04
[Crowe's] commanding performance not only towers over Ridley Scott's epic adventure, but elevates it to a higher plane.
01/18/04
If no one paid attention to Russell Crowe after his stellar performances in "The Insider" and "L.A. Confidential," they did so after he put on his Roman togs.
11/25/03
...One of those technically superlative, appallingly expensive, loud, sweeping, 2½-hour-long epics with lots of grit and bloodlust but very little soul.
02/08/03
Even when Gladiator turns nonsensical, and even when its effects shots aren't persuasive, it's hard to look away, and its 154 minutes flew by.
01/10/03
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