Got Gladiator for DVD recently. Its a good movie with a violence driven plot ala Braveheart\The Patriot two other good movies.

Lots of cool sayings "On my signal,unleash hell"

I recomend it to anyone who likes sword-fights but its not for the fiant of heart. Buy it on DVD if you can it has an entire DVD decitacted to special features.

Strength and Honor
ShiningOne

The Gladiator DVD is very nice. . . i wish alot of movies were released in the same format. . . but then again not every movie is Gladiator material!

weird that Seven the laser disc version was WAY better than the DVD version. though ihavent got the recently released Seven. I wish Ran was released with similar DVD material. even the laser disc for Ran sucked. im rambling. . .

etc

"Got Gladiator for DVD recently."

I probably shouldn't get started, but I hated Gladiator. And after seeing Hannibal tonight, I'm convinced that Ridley Scott is an artless hack like his brother who should stick to commercials.

-Tom

Did you see the deleted scenes on the Gladiator DVD? They were all amazingly good. That, I think, is the first DVD I've seen where the only reasonable argument against any of the deleted scenes was length, pure and simple.

Most of the time I can understand why deleted scenes were deleted. They don't fit, or they're awkward, or what have you.

Gladiator was great for an Epic Summer Blockbuster. As art, it's not much, but by ESB standards it's excellent. I think I was more surprised that it didn't suck than anything else. I remember sitting in the theater going "damn, this is actually pretty freakin' good."

I think Braveheart is a better example of a suck movie (in the ESB genre) than Gladiator is. Braveheart was so one-dimensional.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

>>I probably shouldn't get started, but I hated Gladiator. And after seeing Hannibal tonight, I'm convinced that Ridley Scott is an artless hack like his brother who should stick to commercials.

Well, Gladiator is dumb fun (but a best picture candidate? oh dear), but Ridley Scott isn't entirely an artless hack. There is some artistry in setting up pretty scenes, which is what he brings from commercial work.

But he has no storytelling ability (outside of Thelma and Louise and Alien). In the case of the former he was in non-stylish mode (after a string of commercial failures) and in the latter he didn't have enough money to overwhelm the story with his visual sense.

My favorite Scott brothers scene. In "The Fan" (from the even worse than Ridley Tony), the climactic baseball game takes place in a driving rain storm. It looked fantastic, with Robert DeNiro chasing after Wesley Snipes. But someone should have mentioned to Scott that... THEY DON'T PLAY BASEBALL IN THE RAIN. Sheesh.

I enjoyed Gladiator due to the fighting scenes, but otherwise the movie was a bit dull. Spartacus is still the king of gladiator movies.

>>I enjoyed Gladiator due to the fighting scenes, but otherwise the movie was a bit dull. Spartacus is still the king of gladiator movies.

I like gladiator movies.

Hey, I fondly remember watching the old Italian-made Hercules movies. Other fond "fighting men in breastplates" movies from my childhood include The 300 Spartans and Barabas, though I can't remember how much fighting is in the latter. I think Anthony Quinn kicks some ass before he becomes a convert.

"...I'm convinced that Ridley Scott is an artless hack like his brother who should stick to commercials."

How can you say that after GI Jane and White Squall?

You know, now that I can watch the commercials for Hannibal I have to say I'd like to see it. Not the actual film, but the one in the commercials. That one looks good, as opposed to the one they decided to make. Ugh.

And don't look now, but somebody named wumpus thinks that Braveheart was a one-dimensional suck movie. Yikes. Now who else thinks thinks that Braveheart sucks? Hmmm. Let me think. It'll come to me...

Amanpour

I liked Braveheart more than Gladiator. I thought the latter was poorly edited and badly paced. There was a decent movie in there somewhere, but it ended up feeling loud and incoherent. Braveheart had some of the same problems, but I ended up liking it more. Not sure why, though. I haven't seen it in quite a long time.

As for Ridley Scott, I'm a little conflicted. I love Alien and Blade Runner (though admittedly the latter has all sorts of issues) but I really don't like anything else he's done.

I think Gladiator is great . . .maybe because i like how it kinda compares American society to Roman society . . . sorta. . . Ridley Scott has more in his movies than most directors imo. . .

i actually like Gladiator ALOT because it doesnt have any pretense of being any other type of movie. . . other than an epic Roman Tragedy . . . it doesn't strive to be a be-all end-all movie about roman history. . . ie. i dont like Spielberg's attitude of his last few movies being the be-all end-all movies on WW2, Slavery and the Holocaust. . . though all great movies, just not definitive on the subject. . . even sam peckinpah's cross of iron or sam fullers big red one are better american made "war" pics ABOUT war than SPR was imo . . . Ridley Scott even proclaims from the Roman view that Gladiator fighting is noble enough and a neccesity of Roman life. . .you would expect a polemic about the injustices of gladiator fights but the movie doesnt even go there. . . which is good. just a good hollywood period tragedy movie. . . they dont make em anymore. . .

btw, Clint Eastwood is 10x a better actor/director than pretty boy "What Women Want" Mel Gibson! FREEDOM!!! sheesh. . . as if william wallace was fighting the revolutionary war. . . wait that was The Patriot. . .

etc

"My favorite Scott brothers scene. In "The Fan" (from the even worse than Ridley Tony), the climactic baseball game takes place in a driving rain storm. It looked fantastic, with Robert DeNiro chasing after Wesley Snipes. But someone should have mentioned to Scott that... THEY DON'T PLAY BASEBALL IN THE RAIN. Sheesh. "

Americans know that! hes a brit. . . that can be forgiven. . .anyway, i really liked the Fan. . . it was a great movie imo. A paranoid drenched hero worship media frenzied movie that was done well. glitz and all with an undertone of urban moral decay yeehaw!

imo sometimes the best movies about America aren't made by American's. ya know the outsider view n stuff. . .

etc

btw, just had to say my favorite patriotic American movie. .. THE RIGHT STUFF

yeah, i love that montage of Chuck Yeagar trying to fly to space. . . was a great moment! close but not close enough to the heavens. . .

anyway...

Yeah, that's a nice scene in The Right Stuff. What an interesting real life ending having John Glenn go back up in space again.

I liked Gladiator, if for no other reason that it has a bittersweet/tragic ending instead of the happy-ending they usually contrive for summer movies. Probably the reason I enjoyed Braveheart, and also the reason I thought Patriot was utter drivel. (Yeah, I belong to the group of people who thought Empire was the best of the Star Wars movies.)

- Alan

Gladiator got 12 Academy Award nominations! I thought the movie was ok, but there's no way it deserved all those nominations. Russell Crowe for best actor? All he did was look bummed out and swing a sword? Sheesh.

>>Russell Crowe for best actor? All he did was look bummed out and swing a sword?

Actually I thought he was fantastic. His great skill as an actor is that even when the scipts has no depth (like Gladiator's), Crowe makes you think there's all of this seething anger or layers of depth below the surface.

You definitely saw that in The Insider.

Just give all of the awards to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; it's way better than Gladiator. Why wasn't Zang Ziyi nominated for best supporting actress?

Steve... I can't believe you just said that heh. I really wanted to like CTHD, but I just couldn't. I'm not saying it was a bad movie, I just thought that the dialogue was utterly boring. The action was great, the acting was awesome, but the dialogue just made me want to sleep.

I think CTHD is overrated. And I mean besides the goofy "look Ma, I'm flying" sequences. I sometimes do a little impromptu parody of this to amuse my wife when walking around the house. Try it yourself! A real crowd pleaser-- why walk WHEN YOU CAN FLY?!?!?!

CTHD, I think, has to be judged against similar Chinese genre films. Ang Lee is great, but within the confines of this cheesy "flying martial arts superhero" genre. That gates it quite a bit. It's like the best imaginable version of "Enter the Dragon." It can only be so good.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

"Ang Lee is great, but within the confines of this cheesy "flying martial arts superhero" genre. That gates it quite a bit."

Which explains why it's doing such great mainstream business?

The point of CTHD is that it's rightfully busted out of the limitations of its genres: chopsocky movie, foreign movie with subtitles, chick movie. It's a work of genius in my opinion, made all the better with its broad appeal (vs a work of genius like Requiem for a Dream, which people have walked out of two of the three times I've seen it).

And Bauman's on crack: Russell Crowe is great and I've liked him as far back as The Quick and the Dead, but he was given *nothing* to do in Gladiator. Which is exactly what he did.

-Tom

"The point of CTHD is that it's rightfully busted out of the limitations of its genres: chopsocky movie, foreign movie with subtitles, chick movie."

I don't disagree with that. I think it's a standout in the genre. But I also think Ang Lee should have better things to do with his time than waste it on genre chopsocky films like this that have to work to "bust out" of their limitations in the first place.

"It's a work of genius in my opinion"

And no work of genius is complete without the cheesiest flying effects e. Hey, come on over, I'll show you my CTHD flying impression!

"Just give all of the awards to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"

You guys want to know what my movie of the year is?

Counter-Strike.

http://www.gamebasement.com

p.s. EAT THAT, CHICK!!!@!!!@!

"I don't disagree with that. I think it's a standout in the genre. But I also think Ang Lee should have better things to do with his time than waste it on genre chopsocky films like this that have to work to 'bust out' of their limitations in the first place."

Boy, I couldn't disagree more. For one thing, it's unfortunate that you reduce the entire rich and varied history of Hong Kong action films to "chopsocky." For another, if all you can see in Crouching Tiger is a genre film, you're really missing out.

More importantly, though, is that Lee didn't make a Hong Kong style film to show off -- to bust out of or escape the limitations of genre -- he did it specifically to work with the trappings of that genre, to say things that could only be said with them.

The result is a film in which no conflict is empty or pointless. Every single fight is a nuanced emotional struggle between the characters, and any given one by itself is infinitely more interesting and meaningful than entire Western action films. I have to agree with all of the cheerleaders of this movie, because it was an astounding accomplishment. That it has managed to attain such sustained and broad box office appeal is even more incredible, considering it's subtitled!

And yeah, I agree about Crowe -- he's really good at conjuring depth and complexity out of nothing roles. The writing in Gladiator was utterly wretched, the visuals often pointlessly overpowering, but somehow Crowe came through magnificently; by the time of that first Colosseum fight, I was ready to take up a pilum and follow his lead.

Oh yeah, Tom -- Reqiuem for a Dream is actually good? I swore I wouldn't see another of his movies after I sat through Pi, which I thought was unbearably pretentious, corny, and heavy-handed. If you liked Requiem, though, hmm... maybe I'll give Aronofsky another chance...

Requiem was my favorite movie from last year. With Pi, Arronofsky didn't really have much of a point. But there's some rich material in Requiem.

My last column before I was cut off at Daily Radar (also the one year anniversary of the column!) was a sort of meditation on the movie:

http://www.dailyradar.com/columns/showbiz_column_467.html

But, yes, I thought Requiem was remarkable.

(BTW, Jason, I tried to email you and it bounced. Drop me a line at [email protected] when you get a chance.)

"More importantly, though, is that Lee didn't make a Hong Kong style film to show off -- to bust out of or escape the limitations of genre -- he did it specifically to work with the trappings of that genre, to say things that could only be said with them. "

I must have missed those nuances over all the laughter in the theater.

"That it has managed to attain such sustained and broad box office appeal is even more incredible, considering it's subtitled!"

True, but I again wonder what Ang could have done if he didn't force those limitations on himself. He's slumming.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

>>True, but I again wonder what Ang could have done if he didn't force those limitations on himself. He's slumming.

He's slumming? Compared to what? The Ice Storm was all surface (he got the chilly and kitschy visuals down) that lost the heart of a brilliant novel. I liked the movie, but compared to the book... Sense and Sensibility was fun. I havnen't seen his last movie or his first couple.

By the way, his next movie is The Incredible Hulk.

"True, but I again wonder what Ang could have done if he didn't force those limitations on himself. He's slumming."

Oddly enough, the original screenplay didn't call for the actors to speak in this ancient Mandarin dialect that is spoken in CTHD. Ang Lee chose it to add a little authenticity to the movie. er, not that people running through the treetops is authentic, but you know what I mean. I have to applaud his use of the language as well as his resistance to dumb down the movie by either a) having the actors speak in broken English or b) dubbing the dialog for the U.S. release. It shows integrity to put the quality and authenticity of the movie over the possible expanded box office draw.

Or maybe he's just pretentious (shrug).

Either way, it's a great movie and I actually enjoyed it more because of the fact that it was subtitled.

Plus a bunch of main characters die at the end of CTHD. Always the sign of a good movie. *smirk*

>I must have missed those nuances over all the laughter in the theater.

Wumpus, you need to see more Hong Kong style movies. Then again, most movies are soooo cliche these days that I can't help laughing either. I'm still waiting for someone to spoof John Woo and make an actual comedy out of it.

- Alan

"I'm still waiting for someone to spoof John Woo and make an actual comedy out of it."

That would make for a great movie. :) I'd love them to show how wildly inaccurate a person really is when they're running and jumping while firing a pistol in each hand. It makes an uzi look like a persision weapon.

"by the time of that first Colosseum fight, I was ready to take up a pilum and follow his lead."

That probally why i liked the movie so much i wanted to grab a sword and folow him around scine the speech he gave to the cavalry. I really wish they had left in the scene where hes walking thoguh the infirmary after the battle.
Braveheart too, i think the Patriot is more like a 'me to' RTS of the movies but i enjoyed it when i saw it.

I think ill wait for CTHD to come out on DVD then i can borrow it from my freind (works as Hollywood video) and check it out.

CTHD best movie i saw last year with Gladiator in second. ..

just my 2 coins.

etc

By the way, I've heard the DVD of Crouching Tiger will have an English language track, which I actually think is a good idea. Most of the actors can dub their own roles, with the exception of the woman that played Jen (Zhang Ziyi), who doesn't speak English.

"a) having the actors speak in broken
English"

Instead, he had them speak in broken Mandarin.

"Plus a bunch of main characters die at the end of CTHD. Always the sign of a good movie."

Fairly standard for the older Hong Kong Kung Fu movies.

"I'm still waiting for someone to spoof John Woo and make an actual comedy out of it."

They probably already have.