Gladiator

9.8/10 stinky bananas

Fantastic film. Russell Crowe's masterful performance as Maximus will be talked about amongst frat boys and Roman Empire enthusiasts for centuries to come.

In all seriousness, Crowe's performance is out of this world. Ultimate badass. Well deserved Oscar. Gladiator is, at best, an average movie without him.

On the flip side, I think Phoenix is horrendous in this. By far the weakest performance in the cast. I don't think it's necessarily his fault, he's obviously a very good actor, but he was probably not the right person for the role.

Everything surrounding the acting is also excellent. The script is perfect. The set pieces and action sequences are awesome.

Time to rank my favourite scenes:

1. Crowe's confrontation with Phoenix immediately following the Chariot fight in the Colosseum

2. The Chariot fight

3. Crowe's execution reversal

4. 1 v 1 Gladiator fight with the tigers

   
   

Anyway, the finale is perfect. Crowe killing Phoenix (spoiler alert) has to be up there for most satisfying on-screen deaths in the history of movies.

Time to rank the most satisfying on-screen deaths that I can think of off the top of my head:

1. Aragorn chopping Lurtz's head after he kills Boromir in the Fellowship of the Ring

2. Crowe killing Phoenix's bitchass in Gladiator

3. Any Nazi death in Inglourious Basterds

Anyway, Gladiator is an epic in the truest sense of the word. Great fucking movie.