The crowds on Broad Street love a bit of fancy dress as they go a-partying for a night on the town to remember, and now they can get top tips from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II.
It might be a tad expensive though … when a 12-piece costume used in the film by the rhino-riding gladiator Glyceo was auctioned off this autumn, Sotheby’s raised a whopping £9,600 for the Film & Television Charity (which our two multiplex cinemas also support).
Gladiator II (15, 140 mins). Almost a quarter of a century after Russell Crowe sought revenge for the murder of his family in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), Paul Mescal (Aftersun, 2023) beefs up to play the son of the late Maximus in a corrupt world.
Prisoner of war Lucius could become a gladiator for ex-slave Macrinus (Denzel Washington). Danish star Connie Nielsen returns as mother Lucilla, with Chilean Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal is Marcus Acacius.
The supporting cast includes Derek Jacobi as Gracchus. Now 86, the famed I, Claudius star began his career on Station Street at The Old Rep, forerunner to the Birmingham Rep in the heart of Westside.
Verdict: ☆☆☆☆
This is a brutally-violent mainstream film which has somehow dodged an 18 certificate.
Legendary British director Ridley Scott might be nearly 87, but he shows no signs of slowing down. Having already shot The Last Duel and House of Gucci (both 2021) and Napoleon (2023) this decade, he has another six projects on the go.
This sequel to the Oscar-winning Gladiator will work best if you upgrade to IMAX or 4DX at Cineworld Broad Street or either iSense or Dolby at Westside’s other 12-screen multiplex, Odeon Broadway Plaza.
The good value sets and costumes are matched by the stunning recreation of Rome’s honey-coloured cityscape. Two key scenes shot in water are especially good fate sealers, although lopping 20 minutes off the running time might have eased the film’s pacing issues.
Returning cinematographer John Mathieson adds visual continuity and Harry Gregson-Williams’ (Enemy of the State) tub-thumping score builds on Hans Zimmer’s original work.
Had this sequel been made more than a decade ago, Lucius might have been played by Chris Hemsworth, latterly swallowed up by Marvel.
In that sense, Mescal is a welcome fresh face given plenty to chew on – especially when the now 28-year-old is confronted by a wild adversary in the unforgiving Colosseum.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in Gladiator II.
The Irish star might not be Russell Crowe, but then Crowe himself hasn’t become the serial all-time great we expected after he followed The Insider (1999) with a best actor Oscar for Gladiator.
Attempting to return Rome to its former glory, Mescal’s ultimate test comes in trying – but failing – to match Kenneth Branagh’s war cry in Henry V (1989), a wee British film also starring one Derek Jacobi.
Though underused, the show-stealing superstar here, of course, is the mighty Denzel Washington, back with Ridley after American Gangster (2007).
Even with his dazzling modern gnashers, the double Oscar winner for Training Day and Glory is every inch a perfect giant for Roman times, camping up his Shakespearean delivery to sideline Jacobi and the oddly-cast Matt Lucas.
There’s even a couple of young panto-hungry, mad-as-hooked-fish emperor brothers called Caracalla and Geta going all out to resemble Ed Sheehan crossed with Harry Potter’s Weasley twins. Older viewers might see the Sex Pistols’ more riotous stars Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious instead.
Ridley Scott’s films can be overly serious and his reliance on digital manipulation here renders a lack of real emotion. Nevertheless, he delivers a right old ‘carry on’ while mischievously showing that even a former slave like Macrinus doesn’t have to be a box-ticking good egg.
- Your reviewer: Graham Young has been reviewing films for the media in Birmingham for the last 35 years, serving the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury, BirminghamLive and BBC WM. He was the 1996 Regional Film Journalist of the Year, and runner-up 1997-99.
ENDS
