#david scarpa

[addictivecontradiction]

Gladiator II, 2024

[genevieveetguy]

. We are not where death is. Where death is, we are not.

Gladiator II, Ridley Scott (2024)

[gothicloverdream]

"Gladiator II begins in a mirror image of the way the first movie starts. Gladiator begins with Maximus, the Roman general, facing off against the barbarians, and we come into the second movie on the barbarian side facing off against the Roman general. What is the most interesting place to pick up his story and the most interesting direction for Lucius to go? Lucius has effectively done a 180 from his father Maximus. He has done everything in his youth to not be like his him, unconsciously or consciously. He gradually comes to realize who he really is, making peace with it, and recognizing what was good in that father figure. That’s the trajectory of somebody who’s going from one place to completely the opposite and finding his way back. How does he find his way back to Rome? Not just physically, but emotionally. How does he find Roman virtue and find the Maximus in himself? That was the heart of the movie."

David Scarpa on Lucius & Maximus: Creative Screenwriting

[agentnico]

Gladiator II (2024) review

Been there done that.

Plot: Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.

So me and my wife only recently rediscovered the first Gladiator film and having previously only watched it once when I was a child I evidently did not appreciate the grandiose mastery at play, as that first Gladiator movie is fantastic. From the powerful performances to the epic action to the high spectacle set pieces to Hans Zimmer’s incredible emotional music score…. makes me think of that meme with Homelander proclaiming “it was perfect!”. Truly me and my wife would both now say that Gladiator has sky-rocketed to the top of our favourite films of all time, and also makes me appreciate how great of a director Ridley Scott once was. He still makes some decent projects now such as The Martian and The Last Duel, however he’s very much a hit and miss director at the moment. But back in the day with the likes of Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise and the aforementioned Gladiator, the guy can like REALLY make a movie! As such having grown a new appreciation for his Roman epic, I was really looking forward to but also sceptical over the upcoming sequel. For one due to so much time passing since the original, and also lack of Russell Crowe for obvious reasons and the trailers suggesting that this new one is essentially a copy of the original. The latter aspect especially was a concern, for the original film was a multiple Academy Award winning motion picture, so trying to recapture that same flame would be silly. So my hope was that Scott and the team would try and do something new and different whilst still in-keeping the world created by the original film. Question is, was it worth all this wait, and more importantly, was I entertained??

Look, I don’t one to be one of those snobs who compares a sequel to its original, but it’s difficult not to (so seems like I’ll be snobbing it today!) due to the reputation of the first one, as well as the fact that Gladiator 2 (or II if you’re into your Roman numerals) is in essence a repackaged version of the first movie. Well, part of it is. The whole plot line involving Paul Mescal’s Lucius going on his revenge quest into the Colosseum is that rehash, and unfortunately it is the primary storyline of the film. The issue with this is it naturally ends up living in the shadow of its predecessor. The other more interesting narrative is one that involves acting legend Denzel Washington (spawning a lovely American accent in Rome but the man is so entertaining to watch you cannot help but forgive him his transgressions) where he tries to take over Rome by weaselling his way to the top of Rome’s political hierarchy. That stuff is actually great, and him manipulating the two emperors and causing their eventual downfall was really intriguing to witness. Shame that this story beat only really came to full effect in the last 30 mins of the movie.

As for the performances, as this one boasts a stacked cast. I’m sorry to Paul Mescal fans, but he’s really stale and bland in the main role of Lucius, or more-so Maximus 2.0. It doesn’t help that the script by David Scarpa lacks any depth or character development that made the original Gladiator so compelling, but even on the basics of acting Mescal doesn’t do much with his role. Like his wife dies and I never really felt like he gave that much of a crap. Or whenever he had to deliver any level of emotion, I never felt it. In the original Russell Crowe manages to portray so much through his eyes. The versatility of his face with watching him switch from emotion to emotion was actually incredible. For example when Commodus tried to goad him into attacking him, and you can physically see this breaking Maximus’ mind and then taking every ounce of being to hold his composure and pulling himself back together and then saying “I will kill you but not right now” or something along those lines….like guys that was pure cinema! So yep, Paul Mescal has none of that. He delivers what is supposed to be an inspirational monologue at the end of the film about strengths and honour and I did not give a single dollop of a turd.

Pedro Pascal was in this film less than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Pedro, but here for the few scenes he’s in he spends moping about wishing for a better Rome, which was all good and sound only that that was his only character trait! Like seriously I cannot underline how weak of a script this movie has! Take the two tyrannical emperors for example. Joseph Quinn (aka Eddie from Stranger Things) to be fair as Emperor Geta was quite watchable, but his brother Emperor Caracalla played by Fred Hechinger was a straight up knock off of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus from the first film. Except that the brat that was Commodus was given the necessary build-up, as you could tell from the beginning of the movie that his dad (played by the late Richard Harris) was probably a terrible father who spent too much time wanting to build up the empire by endlessly invading everywhere rather than spend time with his children. As such Commodus is raised to be a wuss, so his actions in the film have sense. In Gladiator 2 though Caracalla literally is an unstable prick and that’s it. So again I cannot necessarily blame Hechinger as his performance was based on the limited info that was given to him, but this doesn’t result for a compelling character. Connie Nielsen is one of the only returning characters (aside from Derek Jacobi) from the first film, and I’ll give her props, she seemed to be acting her ass off, so much so that when she shared scenes with Mescal even he showed glimmers of emotion. Finally we have Denzel Washington, who to be fair from the trailers I expected a much more extravagant and absurd performance from, but nevertheless he seems to be having a lot of fun in this role, and to be fair the movie really turns up a notch every time he appeared. Also did not expect by the end of 2024 to be shipping Denzel with Tim McInnerny from Blackadder yet here we are.

The direction from Ridley Scott is strong to be fair, and the impressive set piece of the Colosseum and the tense blockbuster-level action fights in the arena were great to watch, now with the added flavour of baboons and sharks (yes, sharks). Costumes and make-up are all great and there was something nice about seeing a true historical epic at the movies. I give Scott props, he’s the only major filmmaker currently still trying to keep that genre alive, with his recent other releases being Napoleon and The Last Duel.

The music though by Harry Gregson-Williams is a very generic historical epic score, and very much a downgrade from Hans Zimmer’s masterclass work in the original. That’s the thing with Gladiator 2 - basically everything about it was done better by the original, and it really feels like it too. I’m still happy that this movie will be seen in the cinemas though (my screening was absolutely packed and most of the screening for the film on the day were sold out too) as it allows for the genre of historical epics to still live on. That being said though, I am not entertained.

Overall score: 4/10

[geekcavepodcast]

Gladiator II Trailer

Lucius Verus II, nephew to emperor Commodus from 2000's Gladiator, has been forced into slavery and is returned to Rome to battle as a gladiator.

Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, and Fred Hechinger. The film is directed by Ridley Scott. The screenplay is by David Scarpa and the story is by Peter Craig and Scarpa.

Gladiator II releases to theaters on November 22, 2024.

[moviesframes]

Gladiator II (2024)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Cinematography by John Mathieson

[sesiondemadrugada]

Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023).

[homeplanetreviews]

All the Money in the World (2017) Movie Review by: Will Whalen

All the Money in the World is the Christmas Day release from the amazing Ridley Scott and stars Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer and Mark Wahlberg and is the true story about when the grandson of billionaire Paul Getty is kidnapped and held ransom for 17 million dollars, the mom of the kidnapped kid, also named Paul, must find a way to get him back or convince Mr. Getty to pay the ransom.

I saw this on Christmas Day and was so excited about this. There’s nothing I love to do more on Christmas than to see the Christmas Day releases. Unfortunately, there was only one where I live this year but I gotta say, I’m not disappointed. I’m a huge Ridley Scott fan and not to mention, this looked fantastic. However, this film suffered a big setback that paid off for the better for them. As some may know, after the allegations that came out against Kevin Spacey, he was stripped from being the star of the film and was replaced by Christopher Plummer. How they pulled this off, absolutely blows my mind. After watching the film, I learned that they shot all of those scenes in 9 Days… if you see the film, you’d be just as dumbfounded as I am because it makes no sense how they pulled this off. Especially since a bit of the film has Mr. Getty in it. However, I’m so glad they replaced Kevin Spacey. Not because it was the smart or right thing to do, but because Christopher Plummer fit the role a lot better and this is without a doubt one of his best performances.

First off, the performances from every actor involved are absolutely astounding. Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty was brilliant and one of the best performances of the year. He plays this old cynical billionaire who is just a mean bastard and I loved every single second that he was on screen. Almost everything that he did will piss you off and I couldn’t get enough of it. Like I said earlier, how they reshot all of the scenes with this character in just 9 days is absolutely brilliant and Ridley Scott deserves some kind of praise just for this. Michelle Williams, who I’m a big fan of, was absolutely incredible. She is so good in this film and I couldn’t get enough of screentime with her. She gives one of her best performances in this and her character, as is every other major character in this, is given some fantastic dialogue. This film is actually petty dialogue heavy but isn’t a negative because it had me riveted throughout the entire runtime. Mark Wahlberg was also damn good in this. I’ve always been a big fan of Wahlberg but he disappeared into this character. He didn’t give a big over the top performance or didn’t even get a crazy amount of screentime. However, I didn’t see the typical Mark Wahlberg in this film and anytime that happens, it’s something to admire. However, Charlie Plummer who plays the the kidnapped boy and grandson of Paul Getty was amazing and at times, he absolutely shines. Some of his scenes were my favorites in the film actually but there was never a lot given to the depth of this character.

The man behind the camera and the brain of the film, is the true reason why this film is so damn great. Ridley Scott has made great film after great film, time and time again and this may be one of my favorite of his that I’ve seen in quite some time. The direction and cinematography in this film is beautiful. It gives this film exactly what it needs and the incredible cinematography captures a true essence that makes this film even more suspenseful, confined and beautiful. The cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski, is probably one of the best out there. He worked with Scott on Prometheus and Alien Covenant, which are probably some of the most beautiful looking films I’ve ever seen, and has an incredible filmography of visionary and gorgeous looking films. And clearly, this film is just as beautiful as any other ones in his filmography. There’s shots that truly blew me away and even got my heart racing. The way Scott shoots certain scenes is truly quite poetic in the way the man goes about his work. With gorgeous dolly shots or close up and brutal shots, his style is very present and I couldn’t get enough of it. Even at scenes that want to make you cry and call your mom, you just can’t look away. How he was able to do this even with reshoots that last 9 days, floors me but him and the cast did it.

As for problems with the film, there’s not very many other than it being a little long. It’s hard to actually pinpoint anything else other than a little bit of pacing. There were like a couple minutes of the film where I wasn’t very interested or just waiting to get to the next thing because I was so invested in the story. Other than that, this film is absolutely riveting. A+ performances from everyone involved, the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, and the story is one that had my hands sweating. This is based off true events and obviously this will be more dramatized, but the basic facts are there and I was on the edge of my seat for most of the film. Ridley Scott is one of the best directors out there and he makes a new favorite of mine with All the Money in the World and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

I’m going to give All the Money in the World…

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Sorry for the late review but the holidays have been a busy time. I saw this and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle on Christmas Day but got busy. More reviews coming soon so as always, stay tuned! Best of the Year lists will be soon!