Gladiator can aptly be called a typical summer movie, meaning it is mindless and designed for the lowest common denominator. As Oliver Reed's character says, "Entertainment has frequently been used by leaders as a means to distract an abused citizenry."Gladiator does little else except serve as a harmless 2-and-a-half-hour distraction.

Amazingly, it was awarded the Oscar for the Best Movie of 2000, making it a legitimate candidate as the weakest movie ever to win that honor. Do not expect to be historically enlightened or uplifted. If that is what you want, rent Spartacus or Ben-Hur instead.

Gladiator easily recouped its $103-million investment. Word of mouth from adoring masses spread about the cool battle scenes; besides, it has been over 30 years since the last great Biblical/Roman epic pictures.

The prerelease buzz was been outstanding. I had anticipated Gladiator more than any other summer film of 2000. After all, I love the old epic films: Spartacus, Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis. I even saw Barabbas a couple of times when it was the free dormitory flick at the University of Illinois.

The plot of Gladiator is very much like the old classics, with a slight twist. Actually, it is similar to The Ten Commandments. We start with a Roman General who is the favored successor of the aging emperor. Maximus is sentenced to die but miraculously escapes, loses his family, descends into slavery, becomes a gladiator, and fights his way through the competition to finally meet his original enemy. We've seen the plot numerous times. You will have to decide whether the new wrappings and special effects are worth seeing.

If you like special effects, you may really enjoy the eye candy that director Ridley Scott has tossed into Gladiator. Reminiscent of My Own Private Idaho (but nowhere nearly as good as that film) are pictures of clouds, often coming before walks in the wheat field as we enter a dreamlike preview of Maximus' family in the afterlife.

The opening Teutonic mud wars with the flame throwers are also pretty spectacular and sometimes impressionistic, and the large Coliseum looks very grand despite being an obvious computer-generated image. Conversely, there are a great many problems with certain computer-generated effects. One was a scene (filmed in Morocco) of a smaller Coliseum with some cheesy-looking, fake birds encircling it.

Laziness marks the fast editing and cartoon violence that occurs with the supposedly "bloody" battle scenes. The pace remindsf Natural Born Killers, while the effects themselves almost cried out as modern impersonations of the old Batman television series.

I was amazed that the packed audience around me seemed mesmerized! Perhaps I don';t understand the visual thinking of the MTV crowd I was sitting with. Give me some bloody Braveheart violence instead of this cheap crap. Or even Kubrick's toned down Spartacus violence to the fake, computer-generated wizardry that creates only emptiness. The only fight scene that engages is the one in the Coliseum, when the tigers suddenly appear as major distractions. At least they do look real once they leap out from the computer-generated pits they hide in.

Another reason I wanted to check out Gladiator was the acting. Russell Crowe rightfully could have been awarded the Oscar for The Insider, and he was outstanding in L.A. Confidential. This would be a new genre for him, so it promised to be interesting. Also very promising-sounding was the fun of seeing some actors who haven't been in many films recently—Richard Harris and Derek Jacobi, to name a couple.

Crowe does a credible job with the role: He is a deeper character than the wooden gladiators many of us grew to love in the '50s and '60s. Crowe plays him with a brooding nature, a man with no more ambition than to return to his wife and son after completing his military duty.

The actor had to work really hard to lose the 38 method-acting pounds he had put on for the pudgier Jeffrey Wigand character he portrayed in The Insider, and Crowe does a credible job as the warrior-hero, setting himself up for more lucrative action movies in his future.

Though Crowe's character does desire Rome to become a Republic to honor Marcus Aurelius' final request of saving Rome "from the politicians," he does so more out of loyalty than anything. Maximus is not a single-minded hero in the same vein as Spartacus. Maximus is no politician, but he is loyal to men of principle. He is a simple but complex man devoted to his family.

I could have cared more for his character if Gladiator had shown us more of his inner depth. It would have helped to show a few scenes of idyllic family life. The screenplay indicates that Maximus wants to return home, and gives some clues about the Roman afterlife, but never do we see any family interactions (in flashbacks, or in the present day) to show what is only stereotypically presented. Are we supposed to feel Maximus' pain after his family is killed, when we haven't even been introduced? When I finally saw his son, my reaction was "Oh, the kid in Life is Beautiful."

The reason for my reaction is simple: Nowhere does Gladiator attempt to introduce these key characters, so my mind traveled to a place where I did grow to know this boy. By neglecting to show us his family, the script leaves a major hole to fill in for Maximus' character as well.

The one character that became most interesting was the evil Commodus. Joaquin Phoenix clearly demonstrates that not all the family's acting genes disappeared after brother River's untimely death. He shows us a truly torn and complex character. One who is weak, yet ambitious enough to commit patricide. Politically astute, resourceful, and continually pursuing his sister in a non-brotherly way.

To spice up the story a bit, there's also a scene that makes you wonder what Commodus' intentions are toward his sister's son. At least he doesn't talk in circles about oysters and snails, like Olivier does in Spartacus. Commodus personifies the decadence of Rome. Phoenix plays him as a wimpy, conniving emperor (much like Pete Ustinov's Nero in Quo Vadis). Like Nero, Commodus gets the funniest bits, including the one real chuckle I got out of the movie: a play upon the verb "to vex."

Personally, I was vexed that I didn't enjoy Gladiator half as much as I expected to. I am a prime candidate to love this epic adventure; however, it ended with a thud for me. All that happened had occurred in countless movies before, and there were no surprises here.

If I hadn't seen the trailer, I might have been pleasantly surprised with the innovative use of tigers—well, for a few seconds, at least. I am not sure if my disappointment rests primarily with the screenplay or with the director's work, or if it is a combination.

I was continually having film flashbacks. Though the other epics I mention above are the most common ones, I also had a flashback to Lawrence of Arabia when Marcus Aurelius describes his wayward son as "brutal, cruel, and dark": It parallels Lawrence's description of the Arabs. Immediately afterward, I was reminded of Camelot, when the aging king muses ". . .once a dream that was Rome."

The script just reeks of being juvenile—difficult to believe that Dreamworks and Universal would dump over $100 million into such amateurish work. Of course, the confrontation between Maximus and Commodus is expected, but when Commodus comes from left field to announce that he will fight Maximus in the Coliseum one on one, I nearly screamed "Give me a break!"

I also have a feeling that director Ridley Scott may be more suited for science-fiction than he is for epics. Is the dark, brooding world with limited human connection (so suitable in impersonal films like Blade Runner and Alien) appropriate for Gladiator?

Gladiator cries out for principles of justice and freedom. If Scott intended to show the more human side of the Roman warrior, he should show us more of Maximus' humanity and not rely on stereotypes so much.

See Gladiator if you must. After all, your friends have all probably seen it, and you don't want to be left out of the conversations and become the last carbon life form to succumb to the positive buzz about this mindless "Best Picture." I've got to give Gladiator some credit. It does inspire me to check out Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Quo Vadis, and even give Barabbas another shot on my home screen.