Gladiator seemingly brings back the "Epic" film (although the true epics included thousands of extras and larger than life productions and with CGI none of that extravagance is necessary). Gladiator is by no means a great film. The plot is paper thin, the story lines moves from point A to B with unfaltering linearity, and the end battle is somewhat of a disappointment. With that said, however, Gladiator was incredible to watch, making the audience watch in amazement as bodies are sliced and diced in the gory arena battles. Russell Crowe is great (per usual) as Maximus, lending credibility to some of the more ridiculous dialogue and Joaquin Phoenix is superb (again per usual) as the tortured Commodus (unfortunate name). Y2K has not produced the great films of 1999 (American Beauty, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich) yet, but Gladiator is a nice try.
