Gladiator

This week, as Gladiator II hits the theaters to repeat the same beats of its predecessor and prove that what we do in life truly does echo in eternity, we circle back to the original to cross a movie off of Hayley's list and get her hyped to see some hunks on the IMAX screen. It's 2000's Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, Tommy Flanagan and Spencer Treat Clark. A somewhat controversial Best Picture winner at the time, it has remained one of Scott's most celebrated pictures despite hardly being his best. While it may not match the heights of his sci-fi output, it is unquestionably the high-water mark of his Medieval Mode, very much in line with subsequent efforts like Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood and The Last Duel, and is still a hugely entertaining sword-and-sandal revenge epic that lifted its two lead actors to another level of stardom. Plus: We get pissed off about the Coca-Cola AI Christmas commercial. If you'd like to watch the movie before listening along to our discussion, Gladiator is currently streaming (in Canada at least) on both Netflix and Paramount+ at the time of publication. Other works discussed on this episode include Past Lives, Stop Making Sense, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Alien, Blade Runner, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, Aliens, In Cold Water: The Shelter Bay Mystery, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The X-Files (S5E04 "Detour"), Good Bones, Super Mario Party Jamboree, The Holdovers, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Red One, The Brave Little Toaster, Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Shadow of the Vampire and Crash, among others. We'll be back next week to wrap up No-Theme-ber with our monthly canon consideration, as Hayley's got the keys to the vault this month and is using them to induct the Coen Brothers' 2007 crime classic No Country For Old Men, which is currently streaming north of the border on both Netflix and Amazon Prime. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!