Roger corman went to Russia to produce this ludicrous exploitation movie, trying to gather an audience through the use of Gladiator fame and two beatiful playmates (Lisa Dergan and Karen McDougal) as the leadign actressess of this mess. Rest sure that you get plenty of gore, less nudity than you may expect (but both the leading ladies are really gorgeous), and a story that is almost non-existent, but it is not really so bad as you may think before. As for historicity, even Scott's magnus opus is abysmal in that respect; so, The Arena, at least in this respect, is not worse than its Oscar winning model
