ORBzine - Movie Reviews May 2000

TITLE & REVIEW
Scream 3 The last of the top Horror-Dunnit series - made apparently without the involvement of the original writer, Kevin Williamson, and it is so much better than the other 2. This is the film that the first one should have been. The first question you ask yourself is not who is the killer? but instead What the f*ck happened to Courtney Cox's hair? Patrick Dempsey plays the Detective assigned to investigate the murders on the set of the third Stab film. Jenny McCarthy plays one of the actresses who dies in the Stab film - and thinks she is on the REAL Serial Killer's hit-list! It soon becomes apparent that the killer is after Sidney [ Neve Campbell and the murders are an attempt to draw her out. She has developed a victim mentality, is a victim, but appears to feel guilt over her actions. She later becomes her old kick-ass self, and gives advice that she later takes herself; Take some f*cking responsibility! Randy, the film nerd in the first 2 films, pops up to give the Third Part of a Trilogy rules. There are a number of excellent cameos. Jay & Silent Bob, Kevin Smith 's regular characters who made bearable the terrible Dogma , pop up in a studio tour group. Carrie Fisher explains that she went for the role of Princess Leia - And who did it go to? The one who f*cked George Lucas! Lance Hendricksen [with a robot skeleton in his office, a reference to both Terminator and Aliens] plays the film's producer - and a link to Sidney's mother's past. Search This Site
Gladiator Ridley Scott 's new Swords and Sandals epic covers the same historical ground as the 1960s megaflop, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - namely the death of the good Emperor Marcus Aurelius [Richard Harris] and his replacement by his evil son Commodus [Joaquin Phoenix, who looks not unlike the Quebec actor who plays Michael in the TV show La Femme Nikita]. Russell Crowe plays Maximus, a Spanish-born Roman General whose name seems to come from the Biggus Dickus school of latin. He leads the Imperial Legions to victory against a barbarian horde in Germany, in a spectacular pitched-battle sequence. As the Emperor's right-hand man, Maximus is chosen to oversee Rome's return to its former status as a Republic. When Commodus discovers that his father's intent is that he never become Emperor, he is overcome with grief and slays the old man. Maximus is arrested and taken off to be executed; he escapes and rides non-stop from Germany to his family farm in Spain, but too late - Commodus' men have killed his wife and son. Overcome with grief, Max lies down beside their graves to die. He is taken by slave-traders across the Gibraltar straits to North Africa, where he is bought by a Gladiator-trainer [the late, great Oliver Reed]. He soon becomes the greatest Gladiator in North Africa. Commodus goes head to head with the troublesome Senate, the rich unelected officials who run the Empire. He decides he needs to get the mob [otherwise known as the Working Class, the Proletariat, or even the Democratic Majority!] on his side, which he does by providing bread & circuses. The point has to be raised: does he rule the people, or [like populist Prime Minister Tony Blair] do the people rule him? Commodus, as Emperor, can have any woman within his realm - but the only one he is interested in is his sister [and Maximus' ex-girlfriend], played by Connie Nielsen. She plots with John Shrapnel and Derek Jacobi [ Dead Again ], who play a pair of Senators who want to make Rome a Republic once more, to undo the work that Julius Caesar was killed for making, Maximus and his fellow fighters are brought to Rome to fight in Vespasian's amphitheatre [the Colluseum]. After facing off terrible odds, Max [like Arnold Schwarzenegger just after Terminator 2: Judgement Day ] becomes the only man more popular than the Head of State! Max plots with his Imperial ex-girlfriend to return to his Legion and capture the city by force - a violent revolution as opposed to Commodus' peaceful takeover. The ending? Well, at the start of the film we see Commodus practising his swordcraft against several Praetorian Guards at the Roman camp. This should be indication enough ... Search This Site

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