3.5 Stars out of 5.
This is epic minus Dalton Trumbo. The script is cobbled together and shallow (I have read that it was being written during filming - if so, it shows) and is reliant on the life breathed into it by the players. Fortunately, there is plenty of life, as Russell Crowe, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi and Joaquin Phoenix do wonders with and for a ho hum draft. The female lead - who was the daughter of the devil in "The Devil's Advocate" - is unremarkable, and poor Oliver Reed is bloated and awful as Crowe's owner. I am unsurprised that he keeled over and died in a Malta bar during filming.
Unlike Ace, however, I found all the action sequences riveting, save the last (but I liked last summer's "The Mummy" - which is very much kin to "Gladiator"). From an impressive opening battle sequence in Germania, to Crowe's first gladiatorial experience, to a great Ben Hur-ish sequence where Crowe's troupe is over-matched and expected to be no more than fodder in their first visit to the Coliseum, to a nice one-on-one between Crowe and another famed fighter, with four tigers thrown into the mix . . . all were thrilling and eye-catching.
The final action sequence, and the wrap-up of this thin story, is ridiculous. And Ace is correct about ties to Braveheart, but the ending was closer to West Side Story, making it even more hokey.
I agree with Pincher as to the score. It is Hans Zimmer directly ripping off Holst's "The Planets" and it is a slapdash job, less so because of quality than timing.
But Crowe is a star. He is hard not to watch, and Phoenix brought interest to what otherwise would have been another fluffy Alan Cumming-type performance. Phoenix now takes on the mantle of Stacey Keach as America's newest hair-lipped lead.
