Gladiator II review
It’s been 24 years since “Gladiator” took the world by storm and spawned a whole new era of swords and sandals movies. Will it’s sequel “Gladiator II”, our movie for this week, do the same? We shall see. This time the main character is Lucius, who we met as a young boy in the original “Gladiator.” He’s the son of Lucilla, and it’s revealed in the trailers, the son of Maximus, Russell Crowe’s character from “Gladiator.” Lucius suffers a tragedy early in the movie and is made a slave and then rises up as a gladiator for Macrinus, played by Denzel Washington. Macrinus is not all he appears to be and is proven to be power hungry and wants to use Lucius as his instrument for power. Another main character is General Acacius, played by Pedro Pascal, who is the leader of the Roman army who fight for Emperor Geta and Emperor Caracalla, played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger respectively. Acacius isn’t exactly excited anymore to be dispatched like an errand boy by these emperors to kill people all over the world and conquer lands. Connie Nielsen returns to play Lucilla and as she sees a particular gladiator fight in the Colosseum, she starts to get a feeling that she knows this man. All of these worlds will collide. Sometimes sequels surpass the quality of the original. Does “Gladiator II” accomplish that feat? Check out this episode to find out! “Gladiator II” also stars Derek Jacobi, Yuval Gonen, Rory McCann, Peter Mensah, Matt Lucas, Tim McInnerny, Alexander Karim and Lior Raz.
Gladiator review
In anticipation of the upcoming release of “Gladiator II”, I’m retro-reviewing the Best Picture Oscar-winning original “Gladiator” this episode. You will not have to ask if you’re entertained with this review because “Gladiator” is one of the most beloved movies of all time. It’s the movie that made even your Grandma aware of who Russell Crowe was. It launched a whole era of swords and sandals movies and TV series afterwards. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe playing General Maximus Decimus Meridius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife who would have his vengeance in this life, or the next. Many motivational and meme-worthy quotes were introduced into the zeitgeist by this movie: “Are you not entertained?”, “What we do in life, echoes in eternity.” I could go on, and I will, in this episode all about this Ridley Scott classic about a Roman general, made a slave, who became a gladiator then later, the savior of Rome. You could consider this part of your “homework” for brushing up on what happened in “Gladiator” before you rush out to see “Gladiator II.” “Gladiator” also stars Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djiman Hounsou, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, David Schofield, John Schrapnel, Tomas Arana, Ralf Moeller, Spencer Treat Clark, David Hemmings, Tommy Flanagan and Sven-Ole Thorsen.