Post by Keith Heitmann on Jul 10, 2005 21:08:06 GMT -5
I've been on another Roman Empire jag lately. At the same time I bought Augustus menioned in the other thread, I also ordered Spartacus and one other.
I did not realize it until I saw him on the screen, that the role of Spatacus in the made-for-cable-tv 2004 movie, that the role of Spartacus is being played by no less than the same actor Goran Visnjic who plays Dr. Kovach on the t.v. series "E.R." on NBC. He did a passible job, but he's no Kirk Douglas.
The story is a near clone of the one that start Douglas, but with slight changes here and there. The Roman Commander Glaborus, that gets ambushed at night in his camp is killed in bed in this version instead of being sent back to Rome in humiliation as in the Douglas version. They way Spartacus dies is different too among other changes.
The battle sequences are nicely done, with lots of men and equipment and using tactics that look very Roman in regards to the Roman legions in the film.
The set was built in Malta to resemble ancient Rome and with the use of CGI graphics looked very much the part.
The acting was competent and done well for a tv production. The movie ran for 3 hours and I didn't find myself getting too bored. This version of Spartacus would be a good rental if for nothing other than to compare it against the Kirk Douglas version.
I did not realize it until I saw him on the screen, that the role of Spatacus in the made-for-cable-tv 2004 movie, that the role of Spartacus is being played by no less than the same actor Goran Visnjic who plays Dr. Kovach on the t.v. series "E.R." on NBC. He did a passible job, but he's no Kirk Douglas.
The story is a near clone of the one that start Douglas, but with slight changes here and there. The Roman Commander Glaborus, that gets ambushed at night in his camp is killed in bed in this version instead of being sent back to Rome in humiliation as in the Douglas version. They way Spartacus dies is different too among other changes.
The battle sequences are nicely done, with lots of men and equipment and using tactics that look very Roman in regards to the Roman legions in the film.
The set was built in Malta to resemble ancient Rome and with the use of CGI graphics looked very much the part.
The acting was competent and done well for a tv production. The movie ran for 3 hours and I didn't find myself getting too bored. This version of Spartacus would be a good rental if for nothing other than to compare it against the Kirk Douglas version.