Gladiator (2000)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Maximus Decimus Meridius	Russell Crowe	½
Commodus	Joaquin Phoenix	½
Lucilla	Connie Nielsen	½
Antonius Proximo	Oliver Reed
Senator Gracchus	Derek Jacobi
Juba	Djimon Hounsou
Marcus Aurelius	Richard Harris
Hagen	Ralf Möller
Cicero	Tommy Flanagan
Senator Falco	David Schofield
Senator Gaius	John Shrapnel
General Quintus	Tomas Arana
Lucius Verus	Spencer Treat Clark

Review

A sword-and-sandal film of very much classical proportions about power, deceit and tyrannical rule, and how one hero of almost superhuman abilities and goodness rises up against it all and triumphs on behalf of the people. Ridley Scott directs with a command and grandeur befitting a film of this scale, and Russell Crowe in the title role carries the film with a confidence bordering on arrogance reminiscent of Richard Burton in Cleopatra (and with the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix mirroring Roddy McDowall in the same movie). Crowe is oozing of old-fashioned masculinity and star-power, something which in no small part contributes to the film's timeless effect. The action sequences have all the underdoggish, stick-it-to-the-man feel you could ever want.