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Gladiator

 Starring: Russell Crowe

 Directed by: Ridley Scott

 Rated R

 Genre: Action

 Theatrical Release Year: 2000

 Synopsis: A famed Roman General is thrown into slavery and raises through the ranks as a Gladiator.

 My Thoughts: A really good movie, but was it seriously worthy of an academy award? Yeah, it was.

   Scorecard

     Acting- Russell Crowe does an incredible job with the character he was given. Crowe plays Maximus a loyal general to the emperor, but gets thrown into slavery when the emperor is assassinated by Commodus the emperors own son, played greatly by Joaquin Phoenix. All the acting in this movie was very well done, and all the actors meshed very well together. (1)

     Direction- Ridley Scott has problems directing at times. This film is no different, there was a lot of slow parts met by even slower parts. There were problems with the flow of the film also, and it hurt the quality of the film. But thankfully he got great acting out of his actors, and just for that he gets a half star. (1/2)

     Story- There is something strange about this story. It was not the best written story I have ever seen, but it seemed to play out a lot better than it should have. The emperor's favorite general is forced to become a slave after the emperor is assassinated, the generals family is killed, and now the general has nothing to live for. Then he is forced to become a gladiator, and he begins to kick some serious ass. I really enjoyed how this movie played out. (1)

     Expectations- When I first saw this movie I was not holding out for anything great, but was very satisfied with what I got. This film far surpassed the expectations I had for it. (1)

     Boring?- When you have a running time of over two hours, you had better keep people entertained. This film had a running time of just over two and a half hours, and it suffered from being so long. There was a lot of slow parts, and the filmmakers could have easily cut out twenty minutes. (1/2)

   Final Score: 4 out of 5

 Final Thoughts: This movie was set against Traffic, Erin Brokovich, Chocolat, and Crouching Tiger, for anyone that thinks this movie didn't deserve the Best Picture Award, watch the other movies, then go back and watch this one, there is no comparison, Gladiator is very entertaining, and very heartfelt, it is a movie that I believe everyone over the age of 16 should see at least once.

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