Are You Not Entertained?! Gladiator II Absolutely Delivers

Phillip Faraone. Getty Images.

I'm going to be honest - I didn't have the highest hopes for this movie. The original Gladiator, which came out in May 2000 won the Oscar for Best Picture. But how would it hold up 24 years later with a cast that was fairly unknown outside of Denzel Washington? Would the violence be as good without going overboard?

I was pleasantly surprised to see Ridley Scott was directing it. He directed the original and it had Gladiator's fingerprints all over it. They did a nice job catching the audience up on the 2000 film in the first five minutes with a nice flip-book animation type set. It was very well done. Then the opening battle scene is awesome. On par with the battle scene from Napoleon on the ice. 

Overall, it was very well done. Denzel was incredible, as usual. The two guys who played the twin Emperors of Rome were fantastic, almost on par with Joaquin Phoenix. I would encourage anyone who is an action or even political thriller fan to watch this movie, as long as they're not super opposed to some gory violence. I gave it an 8.0/10.