The Arena

This is a prime little exploitation flick with a couple of cute, costumed Playboy-Bunny gladiatrix being harassed by the local Roman invaders. It's an update of Roger Corman's Pam Grier classic from the early seventies, spiced up with some flash-cut editing, filtered cinematography and impressive location photography done in Russia. There's enough flesh peddling, sleazy sexual situations and action to reasonably satisfy today's B-movie fans, but it's all relatively kinder and gentler than viewers should expect from your typical exploitation flick. The most enjoyable thing about the DVD release is the mini-commentary supplements from the two lead bunnies. It's an amusing take on their adventures as low-budget movie stars and adds immeasurably to the enjoyment of the feature. Frankly, I'm surprised there aren't a lot more cheesy, sword-and-sandal ripoffs in the wake of Ridley Scott's enormously successful GLADIATOR. This is one genre where the sky's the limit!

Right off the bat, you'd think that two former playmates playing gladiators would be just about as campy as The Bare Wench Project or something similar, meant solely to show as much T & A as possible. That it was not (although it was not without it). I would say the violence in the movie far outweighed the T & A (again, why cast playmates if there wasn't going to be at least some).

My second misconception was that when these ladies would eventually do battle, it would be too "girlie" or fake, like you could tell the actresses didn't want to break a nail for the sake of the movie. This was very much unlike the "gang fight" in Savage Roses AKA Locas 4 Life, where you could tell every kick was pulled and was probably the first time the actress had even attempted to kick someone. Anyways, I never would have believed that Karen McDougal and Lisa Dergan would have been able to handle a sword believably. I'm sure they were just props, so as to make them lighter and easier to handle, but that's the point right? To make everything as believable as possible.

With that being said, and knowing that I thought it was worth a watch, the one thing that bugged me was the voice acting. Apparently this movie was filmed in Russia, and probably used many Russian actors, but the voices spoken were perfect English. This resulted in the old Kung Fu movie look where hearing the words didn't match up with watching the lips saying the words. However, if you're a lip reader, you can tell they were saying the same thing. This confused me a bit but I got over it.

I also didn't know they had nail salons in ancient Rome, or wherever they were, but now I'm nitpicking. Overall, I'd recommend viewing this movie at least once. I was surprised that it was better than the 2.9 most IMDb voters chose to rate it (at the time this was wrote). MUCH better than the 2.9, in fact, I gave it a 7.

Roger Corman has an unusual reputation. He has produced or directed a large number of "cheapie" movies--including this one, which was shot in Russia(per the DVD commentary, even the interior shots were done on soundstages in St. Petersberg).

Sometimes, one just doesn't feel like some sort of heavy-duty, call-to-action movie--say, like "Spartactus"(1963). On the other hand, if you feel like being entertained, "Arena"(2001), is likely to "hit the spot" very nicely. Just like a lot of Roger Corman's films.

The fact of the matter is that, surprisingly, the screenplay is well-crafted and not as goofy as you might think. The Romans did try to implement their customs wherever they conquered--including the contests of the gladiators as they were being performed in the Great Coliseum in Rome. And there was even a disastrous attempt to perform them in Greece(the Greeks rioted because of the carnage). Female gladiators--while unusual--were not unknown and some of them even appeared in "Gladiator" with Russell Crowe. A wooden, scaled-down clone of The Great Coliseum in Rome is not only possible, it is likely that there were hundreds of them in the forested frontier regions of the Empire.

A nice, fun movie for an evening's entertainment.

But you could say the same thing about other movies from Roger Corman, notably "The Undead"(1957) and "The Dunwich Horror"(1969). Incidentally, many of today's movies are just that--entertainment--and, IMO, no apologies are necessary.

Movies with "a message" are not--and should not be--the only alternative.

I'm astonished to read reviews recommending this film for its T&A factor. Considering it is clearly a B-level exploitation film starring two former Playboy Playmates, you'd THINK it had T&A aplenty but it has very little. The four female gladiators who are the leads spend most of their time dressed in dowdy rags that cover them from neck to knees. There are some brief nude scenes and a couple of brief sex scenes, but like the rest of the movie they are jump cut so aggressively that you have a lot of trouble seeing what there is to see. Plus the sex scenes are seriously underlit. It is literally hard to watch the movie because of all the jump cutting. The fight scenes are filmed the same way, which helps somewhat with the rather obvious lack of fighting ability of the gladiatrixes (who don't do all that much fighting -- the fighting is handled by more capable male actors, who were also heavily jump cut, just like the rest of the movie).

Most of the movie's dramatic opportunities are completely bobbled as well. The set up provides for plenty of drama: who shall live, who shall die, whom will be betrayed by whom, etc. Very little advantage was taken of it.

If you are looking for well done gladiator movies, any single episode of the Starz series "Spartacus" will put this movie to shame. Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen have MUCH better fight scenes as well as more and better T&A. "The Arena" is simply a failure, badly botched, not worth any attention at all. There are some MST3K-able bits, but even there the jump cutting is a problem. There is NOTHING to recommend this film. Do. Not. Watch. And if you do ... don't say you weren't warned.

From what I could see, the only reason this movie exists is to give some very beautiful Playmates multiple opportunities to display the nude female figure divine. Regretfully, the nude scenes are (for me anyway) pretty much destroyed by poor editing; the constant cuts and pseudo-artsy close-ups become very distracting after a while. Maybe they were trying to avoid letting us see the silicone <grin>?

The "actresses" can't act, even with their clothes off! Most of the characters are obviously speaking a different language overdubbed in English. As for the storyline, well, it's got so many holes in it, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Even the fights are poorly staged, their impact destroyed by dumb closeups and dizzying, confusing scene jumps.

Too bad, with a little effort, it could actually have been a fairly decent movie. The first step would have had to be, give the Playmates some acting lessons. Both vertical and horizontal.

One positive note: the scenes in which the women struggle to learn the fighting arts are actually quite well-done. You get the feeling the actresses enjoyed learning how to fight, and put themselves into it, without any phoniness.