Bonus Frotcast: ‘Gladiator II,’ with Scott Weinberg

PLEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Patreon dot com slash frotcast! This episode is free, but Patreon subscribers saw it earlier.  Matt and Brendan couldn’t (wouldn’t?) Frot with me this week, but content waits for no one, and so I brought on Philadelphia’s phinest philm critic, Scott Weinberg from Overhated to scream at about Gladiator II. Scott has had me on Overhated quite a few times, to discuss all the bad movies I love, from the Point Break remake to Chappie, as well as an upcoming episode about Jonah Hex. And so I brought Scott on the Frot to discuss a movie neither of us quite loved or hated. Actually, that’s not quite true. I loved AND hated Gladiator II. I loved it so much I saw it twice, and enjoyed myself both times, but also hated it because it’s kind of accidental fascist apologia, and in a way that was entirely avoidable and mostly only happened because it just couldn’t help repeating the laziest sequel tropes. And yet! Denzel shreds! Fred Hechinger is a perfect villain! Paul Mescal has a masculine nose and thighs! Plus rhinos, baboons, and sharks! So many things to love and hate about this movie, it just had to be discussed, dissected, and debated.