Film Comparisons
| Here are some reviews of Troy and Alexander and King Arthur where they are compared to Gladiator - to Gladiator's advantage! - If you want to add a review, you can e-mail me. Thanks. |
| Thetyee.ca:
Dude!
Where's My Chariot? -- And so the real star of Troy is--Russell Crowe.
Who was also the star of last year's The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise.
By not appearing in either of those movies Crowe cemented his importance
as today's preeminent leading man when it comes to playing the past.
Bring me the head of Russell Crowe Many comparisons are being made between Troy and the 2000 film Gladiator, which provided Crowe's breakthrough to the top of the Hollywood A-list. As Maximus, Crowe anchored the rousing Ridley Scott epic that can still serve as a master class for the superior popcorn movie. Cutting a swathe through the arena as he moves inexorably toward his destiny, Crowe radiates both authority and coiled menace. |
| Alexander
-- "Although I'm sure this isn't the case, one could fashion a convincing
argument that Stone made this movie for himself. It has limited - if any
- mass appeal, and is likely to make Warner Brothers executives nervous.
Those going to this film expecting glorious battles and epic triumphs
along the lines of Braveheart or Gladiator will feel cheated. In fact,
one of the least accomplished elements of Alexander are the battles. They
are filmed in a plodding, unenergetic manner, and the editing is choppy.
The Lord of the Rings recently proved how engaging a well-assembled conflict
can be. Alexander shows the opposite. Another source of annoyance is the
incessant chattering by Anthony Hopkins, whose voiceover narrative provides
Alexander's skeleton. It's too bad there's not enough meat on those bones
to make this a worthwhile motion picture experience. Alexander becomes
the second big-budget, ancient world epic to fail this year. Unlike Troy,
however, which tried unsuccessfully to please crowds, Alexander doesn't
bother to make the attempt. Never has Stone's predilection for maverick
cinema been more evident and more damaging to the end product." -
Reel
Reviews - James Belardinelli |
| King Arthur -- The concept of taking the Arthurian legends and deleting all of the fantasy elements makes no sense whatsoever, especially in light of the rousing success of The Lord of the Rings. Apparently, Fuqua is trying to make another Braveheart or Gladiator, but he fails to develop Arthur into the kind of individual who can captivate audiences. Not even Owen's performance can make this version of King Arthur compelling. And he's surrounded by a weak supporting cast and a villain whose ferociousness ranks below that of the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2. - Reel Reviews - James Belardinelli |
| Alexander
-- "The mad genius has opened his veins for this amalgam of art and
trash but the final diagnosis is sloppy, ungainly and semi-contrived.
Alexander doesn’t attain the stylish swords-and-sandals majesty
of Gladiator or even the sparkling junctures of its pale imitator Troy.
If excess of all things is indeed the undoing of men then Stone has succeeded
mightily." - JA's
Reviews - Jeanne Aufmuth |
| Alexander -- "As for the acting, Farrell looks overwhelmed by the scenery, a boy sent to do a man's job. (Given Stone's penchant for melodramatizing American presidencies in JFK and Nixon, it occurred to me during the historic procession into Babylon that the movie might not be solely about Alexander, but also about George W. Bush.) If ever there was a part in need of Russell Crowe's cerebral macho, his gift for playing a force who affects the winds of change, this is it. The uncomfortable Farrell looks like something blown about by an ill wind." - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer |
| "Alexander is much too ambitious and far too preachy. Scenes go on eternally and feature long drawn out speeches that will lose America’s ADD-addled audiences in about 15 seconds. Farrell, while beautiful to look at, is no Maximus from Gladiator, – and he needs to be." - Susan Michaels, Film Stew |
| Alexander - "In the already classic Gladiator, Russell Crowe mastered and commanded the screen with a kind of bare-knuckled bravado yet to be duplicated on celluloid. Perhaps Crowe drew from 1995's epic Braveheart, where Mel Gibson lent profound humanity to a mythic Scottish savage whose berserk rage rivaled Achilles'." - Patrick Gavin, Diamondbacks online |
| Alexander - "BUTT- and mind-numbing, Oliver Stone's three-hour "Alexander," like the equally silly "Troy," underscores just what an accomplishment "Gladiator" was four years ago." - Lou Luminick, the NY Post |
| Alexander - "The movie may be packed with historical detail, but who cares when it lacks the basic coherence and romantic brutality of Spartacus or Gladiator or even Troy?" - Owen Gleiberman, EW |
| Alexander - "Like all of Stone's films, this one has some strange elements and unexpected structural twists that defy easy explanation. And, despite its big stars and gigantic budget, it's not an instant audience-pleaser in the way of "Gladiator" or "Troy." - William Arnold, Seattlepi |
| Alexander
- (This one actually compares Alexander's leadership abilities to Jack
Aubrey's). "Having Farrell play this role is a welcome respite from the usual suspects in such martial roles, like Brad Pitt (who was up for the role of Hephaistion but turned it down on the advice of his wife, Jennifer Anniston) or Russell Crowe. Farrell's acquital of the role of action hero is all right, though his ability to convey the kind of natural leadership an Alexander demands falls a bit short of the level of mastery of men and troop command that Crowe carried off so easily last year in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" as Capt. Jack Aubrey." - The Filmiliar Cineaste |
| Box Office Mojo - Comparison of Troy and Gladiator |
| Alexander - "...Anyone expecting a slam-banger in the line of "Gladiator" will feel as beaten as the marauded Persian forces. " - Azstarnet |
| Alexander stars Colin Farrell in a blond mullet and miniskirted toga as the conqueror dude later tagged "the Great." So misconceived, so shrill, so fetishy is Oliver Stone's epic, so unintentionally hilarious a stew of paganism and Freudianism, that it makes Conan the Barbarian look like Gladiator. Philly.com (Free Registration) |
| Troy - Having accepted that premise, he then faced the choice that has confronted all the directors of the computer-generated historical epics of recent years: to go for the gritty realism of a "Master & Commander" or the romance of a "Gladiator." He chose the latter. - Seattle pi |
| Troy - Gladiator notwithstanding, Hollywood has all but forgotten how to make The Big Epic, and it requires some practice to catch the rhythm again. But once Troy catches its stride, clunky proclamations (such as Pitt's "Immortality! Take it! It's yours!" line from the trailer) give way to terse dialogue and much more convincing line readings from one and (almost) all, and Petersen handles scenes of devastating intimacy as ably as the enormous clashes of armies. - Premiere |
| Troy - It's better than Braveheart, which was too political, but not as good as GLADIATOR". - The Times of Malta |
| Alexander - "I would compare this film to Ronald F. Maxwell’s waste of a film, Gods and Generals. Although Alexander isn’t as long as that 231-minute snooze-fest, it is just as boring. My date claimed that even Troy was better than this film. If you want to watch a really great period movie, stick to Gladiator. It’s thousands and thousands of times better." - U of Chicago |
| "Ever since "Gladiator," high-profile directors have been trying to replicate that film's success with grandiose period epics that feature elaborate battle sequences ("King Arthur," "Cold Mountain," "Troy," etc.). Most have been huge financial and artistic failures, but "Alexander" comes out on the top (or bottom) of the heap. " - Tom Long, the Detroit News |
| Alexander and Troy: The Australian - REEL TIME - HOLLYWOOD - And to think that Baz Luhrmann pulled out of his Alexander project because Stone was well on the way to completing his film and the market wouldn't take two. Certainly it couldn't take two bad ones. After the failure of Troy, there is something to be said for Russell Crowe, who managed so brilliantly to carry a loincloth lead role in Gladiator, a skill that was beyond Farrell and Brad Pitt. |
| Alexander: The Atlanta Journal Constitution - Worst of all, the film lacks an Alexander. Colin Farrell has the muscles and paycheck of a hero, but he doesn't have the face or the charisma. Russell Crowe would eat him for lunch. |
| Contributors: Cindy, Ivani, Sheila, Rita, Crowe Fan, Susan |
