Amazons and Gladiators

If you're looking for a flashy, high budget film with stellar cinematography and top notch acting, this movie certainly isn't it. It's definitely a cheesy indie B-movie. However, considering it doesn't come from a major production company, it's pretty good. The story, though historically inaccurate, is interesting and very entertaining. The characters are compelling though not necessarily multi dimensional - some characters you really love, and others you really hate. But you definitely connect with them, one way or another. It passes the Bechdel test, and though it does have a lot of scantily clad women and a few nude scenes, there isn't an excessive amount of sexploitation and it generally stays true to its Amazon theme. Overall, this movie is good for men And women.

The three forces in the universe, in order of strength, are the force that bonds magnets together, the force that bonds protons together, and the force of heroine warrior worshipping energy you feel while watching Amazons & Gladiators, a film by Beyond Films, MBP films and Drotcroft Ltd. Apparently raising enough money to make a movie about heroine warriors takes 3 studios.

Men have long waited for a movie about the Amazons, a movie which portrays Amazons as independant, intelligent, freedom fighting warriors instead of senile monsters like in Land of the Prehistoric Women. This one has good sights of heroines wielding swords, heroines wearing armor, heroines lifting heavy objects, heroines stabbing abusive dictators. If the same movie was made with Jodie Foster, Demi Moore, Ali Larter, or Radha Mitchell, had a bigger budget, a better script, better lighting, better acting it might have been one of the best heroine movies ever.

Unfortunately, there's only acting in the academic sense. The characters wear costumes, read lines, and sometimes move around.

You're better off watching it with the sound off. All the shots are closeups of a tree, building, or fighting ring. There's no wide shot of the Amazon homeland, a Colosseum, or a palace. The weather is consistently dreary. The production is so bad, you might think anyone sitting through this movie was insane but undoubtedly many flat broke, unmarried, male breadwinning gene deprived, SUV impaired men have watched it over and over.

Frankly I'm surprised there hasn't been more of these cut-rate costume epics since Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR proved the genre was ripe for re-cycling. The only other video exploitation film that I'm aware of besides this one has been Roger Corman's remake of THE ARENA, which is a cut above AMAZONS AND GLADIATORS because it's visually more exciting, sexier and has better Playboy bunnies in the lead-babe parts. For the most part, A&G is a reasonably well-performed actioner with a sneering, indulgent performance from Patrick Bergin as Crassus (of SPARTACUS fame), a Roman Leader pissed off with his new assignment and taking out his anger on the local folk. Among the local folk are a couple of babes who end up joining a local tribe of Amazon babes, who eventually give Crassus his comeuppance. For my tastes, there's too little nudity and sex in this feature to make it a first-class exploitation gem; and the violence and fight choreography are only satisfactory. When you're dealing with restricted budgets and cliche genre material, it's absolutely necessary to go over the top with the obligatory Roman orgies, arena violence and flesh peddling, particularly when you're not governed by the pandering PG-13 standards of the major studios. This isn't a bad B-movie for a night's rental, but if you're going to add a low-budget Roman opus to your DVD collection, you're better off with the Corman remake of THE ARENA.

'Historically inaccurate' doesn't even begin to describe this. Nor does 'terrible'.

The only reason anybody's given so far for watching it is the scantily clad young women. Frankly you see as much in a Meat Loaf music video. And the acting's better...

I THOUGHT THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT, IT GAVE AWSOME SWORD FIGHTING SCENES with a AWSOME FIGHT SCENE AT THE END with SERENA and the EMPORER. THE MOVIE WAS ALMOST LIKE GLADIATOR, ONLY WITH FEMALES LOL. THIS MOVIE DID not DISSAPOINT me at ALL, and I ENJOY THE ROMAN ESQUE AND THE WHOLE GLADIATOR THING. IT WAS REALLY COOL TO SEE JENNY RUBIN IN SUCH a UNIQUE PERIOD MOVIE. I THOUGHT she DID REALLY WELL , JUST LIKE she ALWAYS DOES. SHE NEVER HAD A BAD MOVIE.

if you ENJOYED GLADIATOR or FOR all the SWORD and WEAPON fights THEN THIS MOVIE IS RIGHT UP THERE.