This movie is EXCELLENT!!! I saw this recently..and I must say mi eyes were glued to the screen...Russell Crowe was amazing...I am a big fan of him and i must say he is a great actor! Russ played the role of Maximuss..the character was fearless brave strong daring and had a really good heart!! Joaquinn Phoenix had the role of Ceaser...The character is greety, sneeky, mean, disgusting, and everything a Ceaser shouldnt be!...HE always seems to play the bad guy roles...he was bad in THe yards w/ star mark wahlberg....and in this movie he was w/ russ...HE plays the bad guy roles very well..The movie was the best action sequence of the yr. (according to MTV MOvie Awards) and all the voters(includin myself) who said it was!!! Oh and dont forget the awards Russ won for it...Well the story's plot was original...It was about this soldier (russ) who was the best fighter Caeser had and wanted ta go home to his family...The original Ceaser was the father of the character Joaquin Phoenix played....newayz...he told Maximus that he wanted him to take his place after he dies b/c he says his son would not do a good job of it..and wen the son(joaquin Phoenix) found out he was petrified so he murdured his father so he could be the ruler and not Maximus..so Maximus became a slave and was sold to some rich guy to fight..in other words to be a gladiator!! His job 4 this was to fight other stronger men and be killed and hav peeps scream and yell at them...but they didnt know Maximus....he was the best...he killed every1 that tried to kill him...he was the winner!! and as u all know...the ending was perfect...it all worked out...hehe...Hope I didnt give too much of it away to the peeps wo havebt seen it..I just wanted ta tell a lil of it so u can understand it wen ya c it : ) This movie is very extrordinary and I reccomend it to everyone who hasnt seen it yet!!! : )