[O]utrageous, transgressive and by most people’s standards pretty raunchy. But in every single version I’ve seen, it’s also a film about the dead weight of the past, the way in which the current generation has to cope with the legacy of what came before

| Jan 20, 2025

CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT revels in the moral rot and innate violence of unchecked power. If Brass and Vidal were unhappy with the first version for taming their extreme impulses, this should rectify their concerns.

| Jan 6, 2025

It may be scandalously singular, a one-of-a-kind endeavor that will never be duplicated, but it’s still of decidedly minimal entertainment value.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 29, 2024

Caligula is still far from great, but it has risen to the level of an enjoyable, intermittently campy soap about ruthlessness, with one or two affecting moments.

| Oct 17, 2024

Ultimately, it's the same movie as before: same plot, same visual design, same character arcs (or same lack thereof), same performers. Still, rebuilding a movie from scratch may not qualify as cinematic alchemy, but it’s an impressive trick nonetheless.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 10, 2024

While I’m not saying that seeing Helen Mirren in the altogether should not be on your bucket list, I’m saying her scenes foreshadowed her status as an actor I will watch in anything.

| Oct 3, 2024

...while many problems were fixed, its fundamental narrative flaws remain, making this a rather plodding, superficial look at the notorious Roman emperor that ultimately has very little to say about the man.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 30, 2024

Thomas Neogovan makes a punk move by attempting to usurp the original version for his own stupid ego. Foolio. Here is sexploitation in reverse. Don't waste your time on this wrongheaded exercise in entropy.

| Original Score: ZERO STARS | Sep 29, 2024

An unquestionably noble attempt to redeem the expensive, star-studded 1979 fiasco produces middling results but will offer some solace and, dare one suggest, a sense of closure...Malcolm McDowell now embraces the film he long considered embarrassing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2024

The project deserves credit for dedication as a time-consuming salvage project that highlights the integral part editing plays in delivering a movie, making Caligula: The Ultimate Cut an experiment rather than masterpiece

| Sep 20, 2024

Any way you re-cut it, Caligula is a celluloid funeral pyre, a smoldering ruin.

| Sep 3, 2024

If the original Caligula was cut together from mostly garbage, why would a version assembled from slightly different versions of the same garbage be so much better? The answer is: It isn’t.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 3, 2024

Even if it cannot completely redeem the original film, it at least serves as evidence of how important editing is to any project, and how any story can live, die or change thanks to the post-production process. Full review in Spanish.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 26, 2024

The new edit tones down the violence significantly and gets rid of Guccione’s precious pornography, making this a classier 'Caligula' for a more refined audience, which somehow makes the movie even worse.

| Aug 25, 2024

It might still be trash, but it’s sumptuous trash, and that’s always worth seeing on the big screen.

| Aug 23, 2024

Everything is better, like Brass’ decision to cast the greatest British actors of the era as the imperial family.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 2024

The sheer amount of blood and clothes being shed through the film’s three-hour runtime has a numbing effect that dulls the impact of the nuanced performance by Mirren as Caligula’s scheming wife... and the strong set pieces scattered among the carnage.

| Aug 22, 2024

The narrative — essentially unchanged version to version — doesn’t crawl forward so much as get dragged like a clubfoot from set to set...

| Aug 20, 2024

Aligning closely with Gore Vidal’s original script, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut climbs out of its salacious cocoon to become what it was always meant to be: a genuine masterwork tracking one man’s descent into madness painted on a canvas of hedonism.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 20, 2024

After 45 years, this controversial juggernaut of a film has finally arrived, in all its ambitious, hot, messy, gratuitous splendor. Do see it on the big screen if at all possible.

| Aug 16, 2024