(sigh) Shuld I take my dad's advice and finally watch Gladiator?

Sure, but I'll entertain arguments on behalf of bestowing this honor to any of the BP Oscar winners since Unforgiven.

some of those are lame, some of them are great, all have one thing in common. Better than Gladiator!

Absolute bollocks, sorry. I don't even like 'Gladiator' but it's clearly better than fucking 'Chicago'. Just watch it, it's a gas. Looks like a lager advert, but hey what the fuck.

Well it's Ridley Scott so no surprise there.

SHARKS

Absolute bollocks, sorry. I don't even like 'Gladiator' but it's clearly better than fucking 'Chicago'. Just watch it, it's a gas. Looks like a lager advert, but hey what the fuck.

― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, June 15, 2004

el wrong-o

My friend and a group of his friends were going to see "Gladiator 2" last night, and my only reaction was: why?

Watched some youtube hang show and they all said that the ad campaign for "Gladiator 2" didn't make them want to see "Gladiator 2," but it did make them want to rewatch the first one, which made me also think: why? Though I am minimally curious how much slower a pure popcorn movie like "Gladiator" from whenever it was released feels than the equivalent empty spectacle maybe does today.

The national board of review named one of the top 10 films of the year. Are those guys affiliated with the Golden Globes?

It's definitely one of the films of the year.

Fuck Russell Crowe, and the movie has other flaws. But it is well worth watching because it uses a thoughtful exploration of how politics works as a key plot device. I'm not talking about electoral process, but politics - the slave can be a threat to the emporor by winning over the masses.

― plebian plebs (plebian), Tuesday, June 15, 2004 5:21 AM bookmarkflaglink

user name vmic

Roger should have told his dad to watch The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) which is the same story but a superior film.

"Schindler's List in 93, Forrest Gump 94, Braveheart 95, The English Patient 96, Titanic 97, Shakespeare In Love 98, American Beauty 99, A Beautiful Mind 01, Chicago 02, The Return of the King 03...."

Gladiator has to be better than any of these. even though i haven't seen them all. it's definitely better than the ones i've seen. forrest gump, braveheart, titanic, american beauty, a beautiful mind. they were all pretty boring. the ones i haven't seen always looked too boring to even watch.

having said that, i have no desire to watch Gladiator II. don't directors ever retire? Ridley Scott is 87 years old!!

I think all movies should be set in Ancient Rome

Here's Nick Cave's script for "Gladiator 2." Reportedly written at the behest of Crowe, and apparently humored for at least a bit by Ridley before (no doubt) he just said "fuck it, let's do more of the same."

https://ia904601.us.archive.org/22/items/gladiator-2-script/Gladiator-2-script_text.pdf

gladiator is worse than three of those five imo scott

Gladiator is watchable like Forrest Gump, Braveheart, American Beauty, and A Beautiful Mind aren't so Gladiator wins.

i really like Gladiator, have not rewatched in a long time. I dunno about Gladiator 2. Seems like Denzel is the only good thing about it

A friend told me he's quite camp and even queer.

Probably the closest Denzel is going to get to making his Hannibal biopic.

i have never seen gladiator, but a stranger once told me that i looked like russell crowe

(i do not look like russell crowe)

nor have i seen Forrest Gump 94, Braveheart 95, Titanic 97, American Beauty 99, A Beautiful Mind 01 or Chicago 02

started to watch Shakespeare In Love 98 once while visiting my best friend's family in michigan but became ill and spent most of its running time in the bathroom. thought i'd recovered, but on the way home from the theater, just as we were pulling off the highway, i puked into the passenger-seat doorwell and then again outside in the snow. heard gwyneth got her kit off but never revisited

a lot of fun over-the-top performances and excellent CGI, all squandered by an incoherent plot and damp firework of an ending. the SNL skit about Gladiator the Musical was in fact better than this film.

I'm also ready for a film set in Ancient Rome that shows everything painted as recent research has shown it was, like Speed Racer but Ancient Rome

My locally owned small theater is playing the sequel. Its marquee reads:

Russell Crowe is not in:
GLADIATOR II

Chicago fucking rules and I am willing to get into a fistfight over it

Denzel was fun on occasion but this stunk.

yeah pretty mid movie, fun viewing experience nonetheless because it was just so silly and Denzel lit up the screen. but it really has no gas in the tank by the time the putative climax comes around.

agreed about showing Rome painted! i get that it's now the early 3rd century and the wheels are starting to come off the empire, socioeconomically, but how about using all this movie-making magic to take us inside the Baths of Caracalla when they were new and gaudy?

watching this now we've just had the lamentable gollum baboon fight and its reminding me that the original was also an ugly and stupid film which id genuinely forgotten

Ralph Cifaretto is skulking around the thread

the twin emperors are very much in britpop mode

(this was a bad and silly film none the worse for being watched on WOBS eve when yr v pleasantly tired & yr brane already went to bed)