Gladiator (2000)Movies

I get the sense that it's become kind of fashionable in certain quarters to dismiss this movie as one of the many mediocre Best Picture winners, but GLADIATOR rules. It's shot by Ridley Scott, so it looks great; it has a decent mix of both chaotic action and well choreographed action; it has a commanding star performance from Russell Crowe, one of the few who could pull off his precise blend of rugged masculinity and sensitivity; and it has some really marvelous set design. It's big budget, epic filmmaking at its best, and really cemented the fact that Scott could nail just about any genre (he has a five-star horror, sci-fi, sword-and-sandal, and war movie under his belt ... plus whatever THE COUNSELOR is (nihilist thriller?)).