Gladiator Games (2010) User Reviews

So according to this film, the battle of Hastings was won with Gladiator chess.

[daniel-mannouch · 4/10 · 26 June 2019]

Gladiator Games, originally known as Claang, is not only twenty minutes two long, it's one and a half seconds out of sync. So the Gladiators invented chess right, only that it was people messing about in a mudfield and it was originally called Claang, and the film is about some bandanna wearing loin cloth named TYR who wants to win the game in order to defeat his tyrant s***lord nemesis. And speaking of which, you two will be seeing stars after this film knocks you asleep with it's languid pace, poorly lit cinematography and general soap opera rubbish.

The one shining light in this incredibly boring film is the fight scenes. Those who have contributed to the overwhelmingly negative reception Gladiator Games has online harp on repeatedly about the terrible battle sequences. Well, it's not like they're good, but for me at least, they were that reassuringly Italian feeling combination of confident style and utter ass.

The shaky cam and the high shutter speed was an iconic approach to fight scenes in the 2010s and Gladiator Games in a cutesy Bruno Mattei style way mimics it with enduring accuracy. Other Matteiisms, especially latter day Mattei, identified in Gladiator Games include the ultra cliche stock music, the ambitious digital video camera work, primary colour lighting and dialogue overwrought to utter mind numbing confusion. Boy howdy, only in Roma. Also there's fantastic art direction, costume design and general impressive production value on display, but who cares right?!

Unwatchable

[Leofwine_draca · 1/10 · 18 June 2016]

You'll note that GLADIATOR GAMES has gathered no reviews here on the IMDb so far, and very few ratings for that matter. The reason for that is that this is an independent production masquerading as a regular studio-made movie. It was made in Italy, shot in the UK, is in Italian with English subtitles, and boy is it terrible.

The film opens with a lengthy preamble involving the eve of the Battle of Hastings and the various machinations put about by William the Conqueror. What does this have to do with gladiatorial combat, you may ask? The answer is nothing whatsoever. It's merely a set-up for a story which is subsequently told in flashback form over a board game of all things, so seems to have been included merely to pad out the overlong running time.

When the story does finally begin for real it's pretty terrible; a lot of non-actors standing around and chatting, and not much else. There are a handful of combat scenes in order to justify the title, but as with many independent movies, the action is shot horribly. Combine this with the stilted dialogue, the quality of the acting, and the insipid direction, and you have a real dog's dinner of a film.