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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Kirk Douglas?, 1 Mar 2005
I viewed this film initially with some trepidation, used as I was to the Kirk Douglas version. I was,however,pleasantly surprised.Goran Visnjiic is no Kirk Douglas, but his performance grew on me and his interplay with Varinia (Rhona Mitra) was at least the equal of that in the earlier film. It was less of a "film star" performance, and overall I feel that this was the strength of this film, as the stars did not seem to be trying to outdo each other as Olivier and Laughton did. Again Angus McFadden is not Olivier, and of the principals he was the one I was least impressed with; there seemed some inconsistencies in his interpretation. Perhaps he was just relieved at not having to seduce Tony Curtis (another plus was that we were also spared a Curtis type song!). Batiatus is also a bit of a non-event when compared with Peter Ustinov Alan Bates turned in an impressive performance as Agrippa, an initially powerful man slowly realising that his Rome has changed for the worse. The history is better than the original, too, including the building of Crassus' retaining wall to attempt to trap the slaves near the coast. On the downside, the arena and battle scenes can't compare with the likes of "Gladiator". Not a classic, but still worth a viewing if you like the period and want to see a non-Hollywood version of the story.
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