One of the slighter films to ever win the Best Picture Oscar.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 11, 2025

The same sturdy conventionality that made Gladiator a hit means that it’s built to last without standing particularly tall. With apologies to Ridley Scott, it holds up fine without echoing into eternity.

| Nov 21, 2024

As iconic as Ridley Scott's Gladiator is, a better film would exist beneath its legendary dialogue and battle scenes in the form of a sharper script.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 14, 2024

The enduring success of Gladiator lies in many factors, one of which is Scott’s modern sensibility in his direction that appeals even to contemporary audiences.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2024

Scott’s films lurch all over the place in terms in quality, but when the material rises to match his sheer movie-making suss, the results can be fabulous.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 14, 2024

As a sword and sandal epic, it still holds the exciting pulse to this day with Russell Crowe's magnificent performance and its emotional story about the Roman gladiator who fights as a liberator against a corrupt emperor. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 14, 2024

Russell Crowe takes ownership of his character and gives him an immeasurable truth and sadness. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 19, 2023

The individual performances are great and the images are stunning, and -- perhaps most important -- Gladiator offers an escapist quality that makes its derivative flaws seem minor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 30, 2023

Gladiator is not a bad film at all; in fact, it's visually stunning, easily the most impressive work Scott has done since "Blade Runner." But it is apparent that reaction to this film is splitting along a fault line called "age."

| Jul 13, 2023

This Ancient Roman swords-and-sandals epic is one of the last big-budget, grandiose Hollywood blockbusters to win Best Picture.

| Jun 14, 2023

Great visual spectacle and first-rate entertainment... [Full review in Spanish]

| Apr 11, 2023

When the dust finally settled, “Gladiator” pulled off a few minor miracles. It catapulted Crowe into super-stardom, removed any doubt that Scott could work within any particular genre with success, and took a dusty old genre and made it new again.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 19, 2023

Gladiator benefits from a second half that is, given its focus on Maximus’ vengeance-fueled exploits, virtually overflowing with spellbinding interludes...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 30, 2022

The film’s most important effect, if you will, is Crowe himself as the unabashed hero General Maximus, followed closely by Joaquin Phoenix as the Emperor Commodus. Gladiator is at heart their simple story.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 2, 2022

It is an honorable movie, so are they all honorable movies. But that's not enough. It's not great. It's a disappointment. Caesar hates disappointment, so kill it swiftly and be done.

| Nov 2, 2022

The new film has spectacular fight scenes in dazzling sets and a familiar story about honor and betrayal, courage and cowardice. It's the perfect vehicle for some old-fashioned sword-clanging fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 2, 2022

Gladiator delivers everything its title promises. The surprise is that this bold revival of the period "sword-and-sandals" epic does so with solid acting, sure pacing and superior style interspersed with payoff-worthy pathos.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2022

Such magnitude demands a heroically proportioned star, and Russell Crowe is the man, muscled but mournful and quietly spiritual. All hail, Maximus.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 2, 2022

Gladiator gets kudos for attempting to give a fresh face to the genre but it's merely a good, not great, film.

| Original Score: B | Nov 2, 2022

The real star of the film is director Ridley Scott, who transports you from the comfort of your theater seat to the darkness that was Rome.

| Nov 1, 2022