Held der Gladiatoren

I saw this TV movie on German DVD, and though I know very little German, the simple melodrama was easy to follow. Our hero Germanus (Stephan Hornung, a dirty-blond hunk a bit like the young Matthew McConaughey) is a gladiator on the Bay of Naples, along with his brother. Germanus is pitted against the rampaging Lagos (nicknamed The Bear), who won't play by the rules; even though the sponsors of the games signal thumbs-up, Lagos savagely kills Germanus's brother and very nearly kills Germanus. There's gotta be payback!

When all the gladiators are transported up to Germany, Germanus is reunited with his sister Rhihanna — who's also training to fight in the arena! When Rhihanna begins to fall for The Bear, you can see the big showdown coming.

It's all a bit like Baywatch, except that the hunks and babes are all gladiators instead of lifeguards. (And their behavior is surprisingly chaste; you can tell the Roman masters and mistresses are decadent, because they dabble in homosexuality.)

Production is excellent, and the action scenes are pretty good; I found myself gasping and wincing during the climactic duel. The theme song, sung in English, is hopelessly sappy...yet I found myself humming it all the next day.

All in all, I'm surprised this movie isn't available (yet) in the US on DVD.