Friday, March 23, 2012

Invincible Gladiator (1963)

Invincible Gladiator is available for free on YouTube.  It's one of many cheap peplum films made in the 60s.  It's about a gladiator who defeats a corrupt general or something.  I fell asleep about 20 minutes in.  I felt like I should try to review at least on of these movies, since they made so many, but it was really awful.  I'm not putting it on the list, because I'm not sure where it should go.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Gladiator

Gladiator is the 2000 spectacle starring Russell Crowe.  In the opening battle the Roman armor looks period accurate, but like most movies set in this era, wants they start fighting accuracy goes out the window.  The Roman soldiers hold their line for about 3 seconds before breaking off into 1-on-1 sword fights.  Do directors think a Roman battle where the soldiers actually hold the line would be boring?  Inaccuracies aside, it was refreshing to watch a movie a made during my life time for a change.  The movie is, of course, wonderful to look at, although the CGI looks a bit fake, and even though it is 2 and half hours long it never drags.