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Chris Gore and Alan Ng review “Gladiator II,” now playing in theaters.
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0:03
Gladiator 2 is here and I will put this
0:05
movie in the category of a movie that
0:07
never needed to be made the first mve
0:10
film from 2000 starring Russell Crow
0:12
directed by Ridley Scott is Pitch
0:15
Perfect uh Oscar winning amazing score I
0:19
get chills thinking about the score for
0:22
this film and the story was the perfect
0:25
ending Gladiator 2 is directly connected
0:30
uh to the events in the first
0:32
Gladiator and I don't really
0:35
care the way it ended I think was fine
0:39
with kind of the the the the universe
0:42
kind of correcting itself in their
0:44
timeline it is based on real history and
0:48
I thought it was phenomenal it's a film
0:51
I often
0:53
revisit so I I you never needed to this
0:57
is even movie like see Highlander two
1:00
did need to be get made Highlander
1:02
Perfect film great fun action you did
1:06
not need part two which completely
1:08
completely ruined the first one I don't
1:11
think this does damage the first movie
1:15
but my God I knew this movie would be
1:17
bad from the first few minutes what
1:21
happens in the first few minutes there's
1:22
a title sequence that shows you images
1:26
of key moments from the first Gladiator
1:30
walking Phoenix giving thumbs down
1:32
you've got you know Russell Crow as
1:36
Maximus you have other images like hey
1:39
remember this scene remember that
1:42
remember that's the whole title sequence
1:45
from the titles I knew this would be
1:48
awful then there's a spectacular battle
1:51
scene with ships approaching a fortress
1:54
of uh Romans led by Pedro Pascal's
1:57
character are approaching this Fortress
2:00
to take on the
2:02
barbarians and uh we meet our cast of
2:05
characters and looks so
2:08
digital Allan um before we go on what
2:12
what did you think of that action
2:13
sequence the uh the opening action
2:16
sequence uh uh it it felt standard
2:19
pretty standard uh we've seen that
2:20
before except for wait there's a woman
2:24
yes a there's a woman yes Paul mascal
2:28
plays Lucius and he has a woman he's
2:31
betrothed to or they're married or
2:34
whatever and um uh she puts on Warrior
2:39
she's like the only female warrior in
2:41
this whole giant Fortress in any case
2:44
but true to life what happens to
2:46
her yes something bad which fuels his
2:51
rage against Pedro Pascal's character
2:53
Marcus
2:55
acacius in any case uh he has then uh
2:58
Lucius has taken slave slavery forced to
3:02
be a gladiator and fight Denzel
3:05
Washington plays M what is it mcus mcris
3:09
anyways I don't know um he he he takes
3:13
him under his wing and he fights in some
3:15
Gladiator battles against a bunch of
3:18
this is the first
3:19
fight a bunch of digital
3:23
monkeys and it looks
3:28
awful I was so oh God they're just it is
3:34
and here's I'll end with this before I
3:36
go to your and we're not g to get super
3:38
detailed about it it's just scene after
3:41
scene
3:42
of remember this from Gladiator we're
3:45
gonna do it except not as well and we're
3:48
gonna lift the scene directly out of
3:50
Spartacus there's a there's a lift out
3:53
of
3:56
Spartacus yeah we'll do a spoiler review
3:58
on on Friday but but um this is the
4:02
force awakens of gladiator movies and
4:04
I'll explain it this way let me be
4:07
clear Force awakens was was criticized
4:11
rightly so for being a
4:14
retread of the original Star Wars but in
4:18
every way fell short this is the same if
4:22
you liked Gladiator here's the worst
4:25
retelling of that
4:27
story with uh a warrior that is spiteful
4:32
against a twin in this case twin uh
4:36
Emperors
4:38
and attempts a comeuppence so to
4:42
speak uh we do have uh no disrespect to
4:46
the actors I thought Denzel Washington
4:49
probably the worst uh uh performance on
4:51
his part Cony nson is back as Lucilla
4:55
she was very good and Russell Crow's
4:57
Maximus is shown in FL
5:00
flashbacks yeah I was going to say that
5:02
the you know you talked about how they
5:04
use flashbacks at the beginning of the
5:06
of the movie flashbacks all throughout
5:09
the movie and my problem was is that all
5:12
the flashbacks there are to develop
5:14
Sympathy for the luci's character right
5:17
and the only way they could develop any
5:18
sympathy at all for any characters was
5:21
to flash back to the first movie right
5:23
and then and then when they show I
5:25
mean what Hollywood does overd does and
5:28
is now becoming more OB but you see
5:32
maximus's uh Gladiator uh you know
5:35
outfit uniform on the
5:37
wall and Lucius is looking at it well
5:40
guess what happens later in the movie at
5:43
the moment yes I mean it's like I mean
5:46
are do you think we're that stupid that
5:48
we don't know this is happening that
5:50
you're not that you're
5:51
foreshadowing the uh the the CG this
5:54
movie is over CG is there's too much in
5:57
it CG is so bad the CG is actually
6:01
terrible yeah yeah I mean and the thing
6:04
is is you know I've been saying it over
6:06
and over again we we know what CG looks
6:09
like we know when we look at the screen
6:11
that that's CG uh you're not fooling
6:14
anybody and that's that's why I would
6:15
much rather prefer you build a model
6:18
than use CG I'd rather see a
6:22
model by
6:25
way yeah it's it's it looks it's so less
6:30
than the first film the first film has
6:32
so many I mean obviously there was some
6:35
use of CG in the first movie for some of
6:37
the sequences but it had ver similitude
6:40
the first Gladiator had looked real you
6:43
believed it people could die people like
6:45
had gruesome deaths it was visceral and
6:48
amazing and this movie is a freaking
6:52
video game it's bad watching CG
6:55
characters di you don't you just don't
6:57
you don't feel it yeah the the other
7:00
okay so here here's the fun part though
7:03
um right without giving away the ending
7:05
let's just Lucius Mo motivations he
7:09
loves Rome he loves Rome a lot yes he
7:11
loves Rome and all he wanted to do was
7:14
was make Rome great
7:16
again right I mean that's that's that's
7:19
that's
7:20
it oh my God I mean that that's the
7:23
other thing is because the the
7:24
motivation of that character um you know
7:28
the the idea that he wants make Rome you
7:30
know restore Rome to its power right
7:32
because it it plays around with the idea
7:34
of the fall of Rome I I'll just that's
7:36
not a spoiler here um and um but the
7:39
thing is you don't get that sense uh at
7:42
the start of the film you just get the
7:43
sense that this guy is a is a warrior
7:46
who's uh who's helping defend his
7:47
adopted country um and uh and this idea
7:51
that he becomes this great leader uh he
7:55
never earns any of that it's just
7:57
thrusted upon him he he gives orders
7:59
therefore he's a great leader um Denzel
8:02
Washington not only gives a horrible
8:04
performance so does Pedro Pascal he's
8:06
bad I like by the way people laughed
8:09
during what should have been dramatic
8:11
moments with Denzel they laugh I mean
8:14
Denzel at the end of the movie his
8:17
performance is unbearable it's it's it's
8:21
bad this is the worst Denzel performance
8:24
I've ever seen he is he is he is clutch
8:29
he is reliable he is great in bad movies
8:32
he is bad in a bad movie for the first
8:35
time in his career he should be
8:37
embarrassed yeah the the other thing is
8:40
so Pedro Pascal's character let I'll
8:42
just say he's the sympathetic bad guy um
8:46
you need to feel great sympathy for him
8:48
because is he really a bad guy and and
8:52
the thing is is if you if that was the
8:54
information Pedro was given uh I believe
8:57
his his feeling was okay therefore the
8:58
emotion of of this character is going to
9:00
be mopi you're right mopy he's not even
9:05
good Patrick Pascal I I I like generally
9:10
I mean he's really good in Game of
9:11
Thrones I mean really good he is
9:14
weightless here he is weightless it
9:17
seems and by the way I saw this at a
9:20
screening of mostly sag actors they were
9:23
laughing doing a lot of it and there was
9:26
a Q&A after with the cast including
9:30
Paul
9:30
mcel and Connie neelon they were all
9:33
there it's it's for me our members only
9:36
um you can watch the whole 30 minute Q&A
9:40
um like how do you do a Q&A after a
9:44
something like that it was sad honestly
9:47
it was kind of sad I couldn't believe I
9:49
had really bad you should have been at
9:50
the wish Q&A that I was at last year
9:53
it's I feel it's the only time I feel
9:55
sympathetic towards it's like oh wow you
9:57
made a terrible movie but one thing I
9:59
want to say from that Q&A they bragged
10:02
about the movie was made and shot in 55
10:07
days wow L they two months they shot
10:11
this film I mean that
10:14
is now some of the stuff where it's not
10:17
all CG look pretty good but my God this
10:21
was
10:23
just yeah yeah I I in fact I had tickets
10:26
to see it like again on Thursday opening
10:29
when it's opening I canceled them I got
10:32
rid of my tickets I don't care yeah so I
10:35
brought my daughter and she slept
10:37
through the whole thing she literally
10:38
slept yeah yeah entire um so it's bad
10:42
four out of 10 maybe less yeah I think I
10:46
gave it a three or four I I think it's a
10:48
four is your review up on the site yet
10:50
yeah it was up last week oh okay um but
10:53
it dude it this movie's bad and and
10:57
um yeah I don't know I actually think
10:59
you know what it'll probably do
11:01
okay it'll probably do okay well it may
11:05
do okay opening week this weekend but I
11:08
think you're going to see a big drop I
11:09
think I think people will see it that's
11:11
why I'm starting to question whether I I
11:13
think if the box office hits 300 million
11:16
it's going to be purely because of
11:19
wicked yeah yeah so uh you give it a
11:23
three out of 10 I'll give it a four out
11:26
of 10 a couple of the action scenes were
11:28
good other than I don't remember the
11:30
good ones it's it's other than that I'll
11:32
end on this other than that it's the
11:35
second gayest
11:37
movie this year because it's a lot of
11:39
oiled up men okay oiled up men all right
11:44
because there's only one one or two gay
11:46
moments in it what what are your final
11:48
thoughts Alan before we go to
11:50
comments uh what was Ridley
11:55
thinking money money money
12:00
yeah I mean that's just it it's like the
12:02
first one is so
12:04
great and to follow up with something
12:06
that is far less than great yeah from
12:10
the same
12:11
filmmaker
12:12
uh you know H you know is he getting too
12:16
old I don't know he's 80 Ridley Scott is
12:20
86 he should have not made this movie it
12:24
looks like based on the budget it was a
12:27
cash grab by the producer
12:30
and yeah well as long as they got their
12:32
money up front and not relying on the
12:34
box office uh you know good job spend it
12:38
well
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