Gladiator 2

 

                                      Well everyone if you've read a good portion of my reviews through the years you would know that Sir Ridley Scott is in my list of favorite and greatest directors of all time and if you haven't read a good portions of my reviews you are sincerely crazy or disillusioned with the belief that I spent my hard earn money on the movie Wicked for which really why would we need a prequel to one of the greatest movies of all time, hell I bet no one remembers the Sam Rami prequal which starred James Franco. Anyway, back to Sir Ridley Scott, Gladiator is without a doubt the most iconic movie of the 2000's moreover one of the many movies that made sword and sandals films look epic. And I personally never thought in a million years that they would ever come up with a sequel to its best picture predecessor, but do you know that the secret is when making a twenty-four year in the making sequel? You cast the greatest actors of all time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington in the movie.

                                      Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) now a grown man, enter the Colosseum after two powerful Emperors of Rome (Joseph Quinn & Fred Hechinger) conquered his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.

                                      The development of Gladiator's successor has been in development limbo close to twenty-years and it's been in a concept talk for sure but again it was always in that dilemma of how do you top perfection, in fact Nick Cave an Australian musician wrote a script for the Gladiators sequel as a pitch unfortunately it didn't see the light of day but still lives on, on the internet thankfully so, if you feel the need to look up the script online go nuts buddy, sadly I have the printed out script that an old friend gave me to read for which I was going to read it but I didn't feel the need because there was no need for a sequel, although the important part ladies and gentlemen is that Nick Cave's Gladiator script involves a ton of time travel, spending time in purgatory as well as battling Gods? Either way I'm going to plan to read the script when I get the chance and I'm going to make that attempt if it kills me. Long story short Russell Crowe hated the script, and I'd believe Scott wanted no part of it so, really months before the film’s release when the first trailer came out and when you see Denzel's face on the screen me, I was like say no more. So, now that the sequel has finally been released to the world it's hands down the greatest thing I've seen all year, though in all fairness it still has the same concepts of the original Gladiator in terms of storyline but let’s be honest this film was no designed to be a best picture nod for the Academy Awards the other thing I will make clear if we didn't have an iconic actor like Denzel Washington I don't believe this film would ever be great to watch at the movie theaters, though sure Connie Nielson returns as Lucius mother Lucilla but I don't feel that would be enough despite the woman did played Wonder Woman's mother, so she still has it in terms of embodying a strong mother. Though here's the facts that makes Denzel Washington the reason Gladiator 2 works, and that's he's able to play both sides of good and evil and you can see that from his leadership role in Remember the Titans to his Oscar worthy performance in Training Day as a crooked cop, I mean he's the best of both worlds hell, even Washington collaborated with Scott in American Gangster so, if you need other great examples of what makes Washington a great actor I don't know what else you need. Look, it's not rocket science and sure I could go on for hours and hours on what's great about Ridley Scott and the rest of the cast, but look deep down this film is the ultimate guy movie it's the main reason as to why they released both Wicked and Gladiator 2, because they have one movie for all the ladies to go watch and all the dudes on the other side to go see in the movie theaters so, for all the dudes out there if you’re looking for a movie to get a babysitter and go with your bro's then Gladiator 2 is most certainly the best movie to go see in the movie theaters and if your married and have kids I'm confident in saying that you can make some negotiations with the wife and say "Hun if you can take the daughter to go see Wicked, and I'll take our son to go see Gladiator 2", which I truly believe is a reasonable negotiation. So, I'll say this again if you’re looking for a movie to go with your bros or have some good quality bonding time with your sons then Gladiator 2 is most certainly the go to movie, to watch this Holiday season furthermore the best movie to go see on the big screen.