a review of 角斗士2

It's been a while since I've seen Gladiator, but I remember it fondly. Russ was great as a general-turned-slave-turned gladiator! Joaquin was a great whack! Djimon was a great and grounding force! I was excited when Scott Free came up during this screening (AMC Screen Unseen, so only knew the rating and rough runtime), but that excitement faded quickly. Another Letterboxd reviewer suggests it took Paul and Pedro to equal one Russ, that it took twins to equal one Joaquin, and that there can only be one Denzel, and I only disagree because Russ and Joaquin are still worlds better. This is a lesser sequel, feeling more like an off-brand bootleg Gladiator. I didn't care about any of these characters, and the climax is a bit of a "All right, so now what?" instead of a "Hell yeah!" I debated all day going as high as 3.5 for the good moments that do exist, but the more I think about it, the more I'm left feeling poorly about it, so 2. Just rewatch Gladiator.