The Reel Rejects - GLADIATOR 2 (2024) MOVIE REACTION!!

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

WHAT WE DO IN LIFE ECHOES IN THE SEQUEL!! Gladiator II Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/thereelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ With the Golden Globes behind us & The Academy Awards on the horizon, this Drama / Historical Tuesday, Aaron Alexander, Andrew Gordon, & John Humphrey unite to check out Ridley Scott's long-awaited follow-up to 2000's Gladiator. Picking up 16 years after the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind, Les Miserables, The Nice Guys) & Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix - Joker, Walk the Line), Gladiator II tells the story of Hanno / Lucius (Paul Mescal - Aftersun, All of Us Strangers) - forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn - A Quiet Place: Day One, Stranger Things 4, Overlord) & Caracalla (Fred Hechinger - Kraven the Hunter) who now lead Rome. When discovered by a mysterious benefactor, Macrinus (Denzel Washington - Training Day, The Equalizer, Man on Fire), Lucius must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people... GII also features a striking turn from Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as General Acacius, Connie Nielsen (Wonder Woman, One Hour Photo) as Lucilla, Derek Jacobi (Gosford Park, I Claudius) as Gracchus, Peter Mensah (300, Avatar) as Jugurtha, Matt Lucas (Wonka, Bridesmaids), & MORE! Aaron, Andrew, & Johnald REACT to all the Most Gripping Scenes & Epic moments including The Gateway to Rome, Emperors, the Rhino Fight Scene, the Naval Battle, Monkey Scene, Dream of Rome, & Beyond!! Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We're feeling merciful. I hope you're entertained. Jens, are you ready? We are ready. Let's match out to battle. To battle! Wow. Not bad, not bad, not bad, not bod.

Not bad. Gladdyator, two. You did it. Glad to eight. gladiator gladiator gladiator yeah well i think that's how you properly pronounce it right we fought hard and we and we made it through you did guys fred heckinger was carcala really having fun there had a good time oh boy i love that they brought this music back though for the ending appropriate but where was the pirate's music it's whole circle yeah dumb They had the opportunity with the water seats.

And they still credited Spencer Treat Clark. Oh, did they? Yeah, for at the very end of the cast block for his, you know, archival footage. Oh, I didn't see that. I didn't remember even seeing him in any archival footage, but that was kind of them to do. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, you guys, if you listen to this on Apple or Spotify, make sure to give us five, 15-5.

Five thumbs up. Glitorial stars. Five Roman thumbs up. We've watched Gladiator 2. I'm Aaron. This is Andrews. John. Hi.

Who wants to go first? Who wants to talk about the movie? Since the last time I watched a thing that had a factoid where they talked about how like actually or maybe it was a fact we read after the first one about how like the Roman thumbs up, thumbs down thing has actually been like flipped for culture because we associate the thumbs up with like good. Whereas some speculations suggest that like the thumbs up means like. Sword out and thumbs down means sword in. Yeah, I remember we watched. We read that on our reaction for Gladiator 1. There you go.

Well, it made me think of that again. So that trivia stuck. Trivia stuck. But yes, the movie. Yeah, I mean, I can take it away if we, if somebody wants to start unless Andrew, you've got like a burning. Because Andrew's the new one here. There you go. That's right.

Andrews, you should go first. I really enjoyed it again. First of all, if you haven't already, go check out Reject. NationShop.com. Get some cool teas like these. We got some awesome stuff. We got some great sweatshirts here. Aaron's got some really cool merch out right now as well.

I got mugs. I got shirts. I got hoodies. I'll probably be on the screen. Winchie winter, but it doesn't have to be winter. You should get it. You should definitely go get your Agatha and Wanda, shirts, hoodies, and mugs.

You will be very entertained if you go to that website. And Chesty's, speaking of Ridley Scott. And Chesty, shout out Joanne. We designed all those things. Ah, yeah, it's relevant timing, baby. And shout out Janine the machine for designing the soul. It's like poetry. It all rhymes.

So many good peeps coming together. I really enjoyed this film. I, again, because we have to somewhat compare to the first one. I won't go as far as saying I loved it as much as the first, but I still enjoyed how much differentiated while still mirroring some things from the first one. First of all, I like you guys. I would say that Denzel and Pedro Pascal definitely were the same. standout performances having said that i enjoyed everyone's performances even the sniveling uh two emperors um they really match that that energy of common us but i like how this movie really subverts your

expectations like you know you're thinking denzel is the proximo he's you know he's the slave owner for lucius and then no he's really just uh you know he's conniving his way and playing chess instead of checkers like and he's really the slave to um marcus herelius and again i like how they play off those things like thinking that you're going back to to thinking about the first film and then with Pedro and with Lucius like he's a combination of

Maximus rather and then also too you're thinking okay we got our two comedist characters and no really common as Denzo Washington's character albeit a revenge plot so I like how the movie really subverts his expectations but in

a very satisfying way while also paying respect to the first film. I also too like how very inventive the fight scenes could be too in terms of like you know especially the standout for me definitely was I love that rhino scene but that that whole thing with the sharks in the water

I don't know how that was achieved but you know it could be a little tedious if you're just always going to do the same thing where you're just having them fight hand to hand which I still love but that was really inventive at cool and just made me like and the monkeys and the monkeys yeah just everything they did

like I appreciate that they were going thinking outside the box like, hey, how can we really up the ante for the sequel? I really think it was important like you guys. I like the character of Lucius in this one, but I didn't connect with him until we got those scenes with the doctor.

It just really humanized the character a lot more those scenes because you could understand. And again, we understand his motivation, but again, it just really humanizes him when we have those softer gentle moments with that doctor because the doctor's been a gladier, he understands him, and then, you know, it just helps us as an audience really connect with him

and get some more emotional depth with him. So much needed. Yeah. Back of the surface. Yeah, no, for sure. But, yeah, no, I really enjoyed this in Pedro Pascal, another incredible performance. I love how, again, like Maximus, a man of honor and duty, his grit and determination. I would have even liked even more screen time for him.

But, again, the time we did get was very impactful, awesome, as always. and Denzel his line delivery just amazing as always I can imagine how those lines were written on the pages like they were good lines but it's his delivery of the lines that elevated them even more like I just found myself

The man navigates a dramatic pause like no one's business and even again even though you want him to die when you see after he's like killed Lucille and all that it's like okay he's the bad guy I'm like I still appreciate his character and his performance so much I think he's just a great villain

and I know you're going to make the point with what you're going to say and I'm really leaning towards what you're going to say too which I will let you say. You don't know what I'm going to say. What? You don't know what I'm going to say.

In regards to Cometheus, but I'll let you get there when you get there. But I just really loved his character and his performance and it was just great backstory and I like the reveal towards the end. And again, when you probably rewatched this film, I think it makes good use of

ah, now I see where we're going with this. But again, I just really love how resourceful, intuitive his character And you could see that too earlier from that one foreshadowing line that you were talking about But also too like he really was starting like he was really starting to read like the room in terms of like figuring out who Lucius was like earlier It was like Lucius sorry He was really starting to figure it out too without actually knowing like things and like this is such an intuitive character And I appreciate villains like that

For sure Johnny Boy Absolutely Just distracted by something off camera really quick Waitito! Yeah, this was interesting because I feel like, you know, we're at that point where Ridley Scott is still certainly like a prolific filmmaker. He's still out here at 80, whatever years old. You know, he makes tons and tons of movies still,

and I feel like he operates in a couple different modes from, you know, being... I feel like the lottery you play with Ridley Scott a lot of the time now is like, is this going to be like great classics, Ridley? sometimes he does reenter that territory or is this going to be one of those more off the rails kind of experiments that still has a lot of good stuff in it

but maybe that doesn't materialize into a fully realized piece or whatever and I thought this ended up toward the better spectrum, better side of that spectrum toward like I feel like as the movie progressed and I think as it got out of the shadow of

feeling a lot like the original gladiator the more interesting it became And having watched Napoleon recently, which was an interesting movie certainly and was a thick boy, I feel like, you know, I feel like a lot of stuff gets cut leading to these already substantial final cuts of these movies. I felt that less here than with something like Napoleon. But yeah, like to see him back in this world of ancient Rome, you know, and the way he chooses to realize it definitely gives you that transportive quality the first movie had. And I thought they made pretty solid use of effects. like there's a lot that could go wrong coming out of the kind of production value you had with the first gladiator into a much more futuristic setting where like we were kind of saying earlier on in the reaction that movie you know broke some ground or at least was on a more cutting edge in terms of like we've got some digital renderings of some of these classic locations from history and certainly those are more noticeable now but also we're in a time where we just kind of know people use a lot of effects like that so i thought the way that this managed to bring in a lot more of those kinds of elements, especially in the naval battle with the monkeys and stuff,

you know, various other things. I thought they still managed to, like, orchestrate something that felt very tangible and that felt very dusty and, like, you're actually kind of there in these places. And, and decently observed, even if, you know, I'm sure there's going to be a number of, I'm sure there are already experts react videos breaking down, like, you know, these movies often make you sit and go like, oh, wow, these little details are those little details. Like, I wonder if this is true to life. And at least engrossed me into wondering about that and into wanting to know about the history of this time and place

more because from everything I know and from everything I've been told it is like you know certainly wild and worthy of an operatic telling like you know history is pretty crazy as well as you know legend but yeah I thought this got better as it went along and I certainly

think that like the ensemble is really interesting because they got a ton of capable actors and I for some of them could have used a bit more meat on the bone. It's like the first gladiator was more straightforward than I kind of expected almost. And we read some trivia and Russell Crow was even sort of like I'm taken aback a little bit

by all the accolades I got for that character because in a lot of ways it is a very straightforward character. He's burdened with some specific trauma, a specific mission. But his characterization in that first movie does feel like well balanced despite the fact that it isn't overly melodramatic too much of the time with like the layers they're trying to peel back on him however many layers

they do or don't attempt and here I felt like with Paul Miscow and especially for how much I've heard this guy's an incredible actor and he's another one of those names where you've heard he's been in a couple indie flick I'm reminded of Timothy Shalamee where it's like oh after call me by your name everyone's got this guy's name in their mouth and this was certainly

like a good first impression from him and I definitely felt like I cared more about Lucius Hano the more we got to when the scenes of the doctor came in really because so much of his character is about his fury about the backstory we know he has and I feel like in one way it's conscientious

the movie knows it's playing enough on the first movie's beats that they can kind of they don't need to spend too much time in some preliminary stuff but a drawback to that I think is that you know his origin is kind of stock it's like oh yeah he's this you know uh warrior of some you know level of both repute on the battlefield and he's got a good head on his shoulders and he just wants to live a simple life with his wife and she's you know a warrior too and that's great and then she dies and then he's got

his whole you know revenge motivation he sees pedro pascal and like that stuff is like pretty straightforward standard stuff uh and it takes a while for him to become as interesting within the ensemble and a lot of characters honestly it's like denzel is interesting kind of from the get and uh and uh pedro pascal is interesting when he's around and the amount of time and the perspectives from which you see him make sense although it does kind of make you wish that there was more with him a little bit yeah um yeah it's like there's there's it's weird is it like this has an interesting structure and about the time i was wondering if this was going to settle at meh for me almost definitely was like

that feeling went away as the movie went on and again as it started to really spread out in terms of like okay now it's kind of a different movie and now there's other things happening and you thought you were kind of watching a retread of Gladiator with some interesting twists and now you're watching something that's a bit

going off in its own direction and so like at a certain point I was like this seems like it's going to be a four or five act movie rather than you know your traditional three it's like once it it's weird at that point when I thought about that. I was like, I don't know how two more acts of this are going to fare, but then luckily those, you know, additional

perceived acts got that much more interesting. So I was kind of like happy at that point to have the extra stuff. And like once you get to the end it feels natural, but also it's kind of like an interesting, I'm curious to see how this lands as I sit with it.

Because like it's really impressive in a lot of ways. There's a lot of great production value in costumes and hair and all sorts of great filmmaking on display. But it is like an interesting shaped story and I'm curious how resonant it will remain with the first half especially being as it is but I've talked too long Aaron please what I will say even though I would leave the theater every time this trailer would play the fact that they told us that he was Lucius yeah and it happened more than halfway through the film I was like why would you do that that was so unnecessary I feel

like had I known had I not known that that's who that was from the beginning I think it would have added to the enjoyment of the film yeah but I will say as the movie went on kind of similar to you I did start to enjoy it more I had a hard time caring for lucia sloshano in the beginning because his origin so to speak felt obligatory it felt like beats that we had to hit rather than letting us live into it like I would have loved it if we've got we've gotten to seen uh some of the stuff with um what's his name, Pedro's character, and is some more life with Hano or Lucius before they come to blows. And maybe that would have been a longer movie, but I feel like having the emotional complexities of those two characters that are both two sides or two halves of who Maximus was as a character would have added to the conflict to make it a lot more interesting. That being said, as the characters are presented in the movie,

both of them kind of have the sense of being disservice by the story, because they are literally one character that was split into two, which doesn't give you that same sort of satisfaction because what would make Gladiator one so great is because of the simplicity of a guy he went from the bottom now to the top. But then if you have Pedro's character who's already at the top

but has literally all of the same goals and intentions and desires that Maximus had, it kind of doesn't really give him anywhere to go other than just having a goal he's trying to achieve. It's kind of like just splitting the character and two, giving it one character's worth of time still. Exactly. Yeah. And I felt that way for both characters.

And yeah, if you start, the thing with Lucian or with Hano is the fact that we started with unblankatory origin and then we just had him being a place of rage, not a place of loss or despair or or hopelessness, but just anger. And granted, is anger, powerful motivation? Sure, we love revenge stories, right? but if you're going to have a revenge story you're gonna want to have us adhere to that character or at least give us a reason to care about him

show us his heart before you show us his pain and I feel like the movie had the like an obligatory showing of the heart rather than letting us actually live in it yeah well and yeah it's like

in the original gladiator I feel like too it's like he loses his his wife and that child right yeah that happens straight away though we see who he is first but even that is like the more obligatory version of the origin and then we really

get to know him through his interactions with multiple people in his experience of becoming a gladiator and fighting his way back up to the heights that he goes in that movie. Whereas this movie yeah it's like this movie for Paul Muscal kind of

like it goes the one layer. It's like oh yeah he lost a wife and his you know home life his little home his hearth and home but also we don't really get that much sands those precious little scenes with the doctor to like open him up or humanize him or to demonstrate anything else really at all it comes later yeah and it doesn't give us the the space to really endear him early on which and i feel like the ensemble kind of takes away from

the the smoothness or the uh the impact of the movie's intention because it's just taking things we've already seen before and splitting them but the only thing that felt felt new and interesting to me was Denzel's character because he was somebody who would come from the bottom to the top, but for his own nefarious means, his own means. So watching that was cool. And part of me was like, okay, I liked Pedro and Denzel the most. And I felt like with Denzel, it was because of how the character was written and his performance. But I think with Pedro is more so just because I like Pedro Pascal as an actor and the way he delivers lines. I feel like on the paper, like, oh, this is just Maximus Light. But because we had these other things going on, it felt, yeah, he felt like somebody I had cared about. Whether it was because he reminded me of Maximus, whether it was because I like Petro Piscale, whether it's a combination of the two of those things. Yeah. There's still a combined effect of everything you see him do in the first half.

But, yeah, it makes you wish that the first half had made you care more. Yeah. It's weird. The movie feels like it struggles to find who it's, it feels. kind of perfunctory in the first part of his story. It's like we're following him and we're supposed to be in Deer Doom because he's the Maximus type of character. I feel like

he was serviceable. Brain says I should love this guy or I should be really into this guy's journey and I like the performance but yeah, it felt more like he's the Maximus so we like him. You like him, right? You should like him. Let's look at the movie felt like he was trying to say. What I will say positive though about the movies

I love the action. I thought the action was really well done. I think that's the one improvement over the original one. Even though the is good in the first one. I feel like there's a lot of like closeness and like playing with frame rate and just like it's like sometimes a little too close

but this one the action was visceral you felt it all, you saw it all the choreography was amazing the way the way it was shot was really impressive so from like I will go back and watch the action scenes of this movie I don't think that it I think the first one's better

but I think it's not a bad companion piece to the first one because you're as I'm watching it right I'm wondering like, okay, why does the sequel need to be made? What is it, what is its purpose, right, in the legacy that is Gladiator? And I think it's about seeing this, like, that vision of Rome kind of come to pass. Like, we leave it, I'm kind of, we don't see it coming to pass, but we see him take down tyranny outside of the arena, right? And I don't know, because the first one did it.

Because the first one about history for sure. Because this feels like it goes to a more idyllic or a more historical fiction-y kind of ending, but I don't, you know, I don't know all the ins and outs of the history and the rise and fall of Rome. So, like, I don't know if this is based on real, how, you know, how the empire we know as Rome fell or became a different thing than it was up until this point. But it definitely felt like more of an idealized kind of ending. Yeah. And I think from what I've heard, and I haven't heard any specific opinions about the movie, but I know that it's a little divisive. Some people like it, some people hate it. And I don't think it's worthy of hate personally. I don't think it's done anything. And I wonder if it's like one of those scenarios where because the first one's so beloved and because there's so much hype around it, it's not living up to the legacy kind of amplifies. It's just like kind of the only thing I can think of similarly, which granted, I feel like if this, if one of them's going to deserve it more, I think it. be this one even neither of them do is like

last of us one to two in the in the sense that you know the the first one was so beloved and had so much like replay value and like people love those characters and love that story so that anything I won't I won't but I will say that I know that people didn't love what happened there

yeah but that one again divisive but I think this is divisive in the in the same way in a different way because it's not it's not reinventing the will it's like it's not flipping the story on its head and like in some ways yeah it kind of is but most of it feels like divided retreading of the first one there is boldness is that is that like the cyclical nature of history or is that kind of creativity being a little bankrupt but i don't know

question yeah i will say too um i mentioned earlier about subverting expectations um you know you have this revenge story with Maximus for Cometus in the original. Now you have with Lucius, Lucius, Lucius, however you say it, going after Pedro Pascal's character. But I do like how it kind of flips it on its head with like, this is his stepfather. So I do like that dramatic conflict there. I did personally feel, I'm not sure how you guys felt about this.

I kind of felt like, and again, I understood what they were doing and now it was executed. I felt it was kind of just everything was resolved very abruptly in that moment. I'm like, yeah, I just wanted to sit with it. It didn't feel it a little bit longer, but it just kind of happened really quickly in the arena and all that. But I understood the resolve. Like, I got it. But it just happened. In terms of like with Lucius, I'm like, okay, that was resolved rather quickly, like, with the two of them.

Like, in a very quick moment's notice. It's odd because you do, I don't necessarily, I'm going to wait and see how reflection treats that. Yeah, yeah. I just mean that right after watching at the, for maybe I might feel different in the second or third or fourth time watching. it but it does I think there are multiple actors and characters in which you kind of want to see some kind of big gratifying

exchange between them and Pedro Pescal and it doesn't really happen that much because he's mostly with Connie Nielsen and and yeah it's one of those things where like on the one hand given the positioning I'm like okay it's kind of cool because again it's playing with your expectations about the stature of actors

and how you know this revered general might in one fell swoop unceremoniously be dispatched or whatever but yeah there are moments where you kind of wish that it's weird it's like the movie is doing a lot of stuff and it's doing more stuff than the first movie is doing and i think for all all things considered it's managing a lot of that stuff or at least it's it's managing it a lot better than it could you know this could have gone way wronger but the first movie does feel like it benefits perhaps from just like a little bit more breathing room because it's not trying to

be so many things at once yeah yeah the thing that was perplexing me as the movie went on, which we never really answered or addressed, is that the whole first movie is about, we need to stop the corruption, we need to give the power back to the Senate, right? And then he kills the guy who's the dictator who shouldn't have been in power in the first place. And 16 years later,

we have someone that's arguably worse. But we didn't even, like, say how we got there. But it felt like the Senate was about to take power. I was thinking that. I mean, we just, we just see the how do we get from A to B? This is crazy. We just saw the flashback scene of the mom sending off Luciusius or Lucius? I'm

Lucius Fox. Either is acceptable. Lucius, Lucius, Lucius. I know, but I always get correct this comments. I mean, someone can tell you what the classical Latin would be. Whatever the case is, we just get the flashback. It might be Lucius. We just get the flashback of her sending him off.

And I know we got the pretext at the beginning, but like, yeah, we didn't really get to see or feel it at all. It does, it's a fair. It is a fair question, especially in a historical piece of fiction. And again, it either to thread your fictional. you know connecting points together or to pay lip service to what history are you you're using to you know uh orchestrate this new scenario like yeah it would have been i think it compliments the idea that like yeah you can take out some vicious or or cut off one head two more to feel tickets place kind of thing well yeah and the it does highlight some of that struggle of like

ideally yes we would give back power to the senate but that's only the solution to one kind of problem and there are other problems that the senate can find themselves in and and you know taking out one leader with so much control and so much public, you know, such a, I don't know, in that first movie there was a lot, it seems like the crowd is much more apt to turn on the dual emperors

here, but like, you know, somebody like Comatist leaves a power vacuum and I could imagine how two even worse leaders might rise in the face of that if the Senate can't get their shit together. But that is all stuff I'm just head canoning right now and it would be nice. Young twins, but like, okay, the queen is still there. The Senate

guy from the first one is still there. how do we get here? And it doesn't and for having him I like him like Derek Jacoby is again a veteran actor and he's in a lot

of these kinds of characters yeah Gracchus he's in a lot of these kinds of things and like having his presence here should lend greater connective tissue and yet it kind of feels like he was just here

yeah I remember him from the first one I remember how important he was and trying to change things and I tried especially for these movies that you know we are waiting past the theatrical window

not to hear too much but I had heard a little bit of feedback about this movie and some people be like Derek Jacoby man he's doing he's he's one of the highlight supporting characters and I'm like I like seeing him but it didn't feel like it actually like connected it back

to the first one meaningfully in a way that's shown out beyond all the other stuff that was happening. He felt more like member berries than anything. A little bit yeah and it's like I really like the idea of Denzel's character and the question of him because in a way it's like you could leave us off

in a I think the ending is interesting Because on the one hand, we're along with Lucius, and we de facto kind of want him to prevail above all others because he has that sort of every man type of resolve and perseverance and physical ability, but also he just seems like a good guy who just wants, you know, people to live, you know, free and, and, you know, with liberty. You know, so, like, ostensibly, like, a good victor for the end part of the movie, but, like, Denzel's character has a point still. and like even if you can argue like oh he might go to equally tyrannical means to see his plan out and it maybe is for you know a piece of historical fiction like that really wants to get into the nitty gritty I feel like you could make that ending a little more rich with the you know shadows of circumstance in that you know Denzel does kind of arise as like oh you're the ultimate sort of villain of this story when I don't think he necessarily needs to be like he can be in antagonist

You know, forced toward what Lucius is trying to get at. But at the same time, like his, his point in a way, a good villain of any variety should have a point. Yeah, I like his, yeah, his connivingness. I like the fact that he was, it was like this, this bitterness about like how the, how the system works and like right into the top. I don't know. There's something like. If he wasn't, if they didn't. Killmonger as adjacent to it.

But I will say. He is a big killmonger. I will say, though. now that I've seen the movie myself and I was avoiding spoilers and whatnot Yeah Relating enough in the video for me to say this What the fuck was the uprising about the kiss

What the hell was that? I don't know Because he kissed the one on the cheek I was like bro grow up I thought you The peripheries of how it made it sound like People he was like making out with somebody I was like no worry

Nothing even close to that happened at the movie Well and I'm sitting here watching this going Like you did kiss a couple of people And then in a way that feels like Denzel getting to just that felt like it easily could have been his choice to be like, I'm gonna kiss your one hand, then your other hand, then your cheek,

then your other cheek. Like, it felt very pronounced. And so, yeah, like, there's been speculation on, like, his account of this has changed a couple of times. Maybe the kiss never happened. Like, what, it's a very odd little detail tacked on the side of this movie. Because, yeah, I'm sitting here going, like,

you didn't get to get to kiss the dude. And, like, if there's some weird, like, crazy, like you tongue kissing him on the lips or something that didn't make the cut, like, fine interesting but also like i'm not sitting here going like damn man they they they chickened out they should have kept it i'm like it is a very weird like not that i wouldn't be down to watch denzil go even crazier in this movie but yeah that is like such a weird controversy and this did nothing to make it any clearer didn't he say didn't he say some kind of line to i'm not

always into women or some i forgot well that yeah i learned about being bisexual which that was much more common in the Greek and Roman days. I just forgot what the line was, but yeah. But yeah, no, he implies his bisexuality. Yeah, yeah. Bisexual king. Oh, and by the way, answer your question when we were watching earlier,

the actor's name was Peter Mensaw. I was going to say it. He was the messenger in 300 that King Leoni said, this is Sparta. Yeah, this is madness. And they kicks him with his crazy ass robes. I was going to say that too. I was like, is that the guy from 300?

but I didn't. I don't get credit. I failed. Dang it. Absolutely failed. We're going to throw you into the lines. Shall I read some trivia or do we have more to say? I think I've said my piece of time.

Are you ready to shut up? I am ready to shut up. You would have easily been the only person talking. If you don't shut up, I will find you because I know where you live. Damn, that's right. In an interview with Simon Mayo, Sr., Ridley Scott said. Oh, of Promote and Mayo. That he sold the Kingdom of Heaven set to the Moroccan government for $10 because it was cheaper than dismantling it.

He then had to hire it from the same government for use in this film. Fun. That's awesome. I love that. I hope they charged him $20. And I hope I get to react to Kingdom of Heaven. I've always wanted to see that movie. The rhinoceros fight was originally meant to be in the first Gladiator film. It was changed because the special effects of the time couldn't convincingly. recreate them and real rhinos are impossible to tame

damn dude hey these guys were doing it why can't Hollywood do it I can't Hollywood chain do that yeah CGI rhino CJI rhino this is because Paul Giamati was busy that's why they couldn't

shoot this is true I am the rhino following the first battle Acacius Acacius says either or Veivictus which is Latin for wo to the defeated Hey. Oh, and he said it in English for us, too. There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

To film, this is a little bit long. To film the baboon sequence, Sir Ridley Scott cast 12 very small stuntmen. Some of them are not children, but tough teens, quite tiny. He dressed them all in black tights and put tiny whiskers on them as well. And we went to war with stuntmen, he explained. So it becomes a stuntman brawl of savagery. So then I had all the physically recorded of all the actors. I removed the guys in black tights,

put in wire frames of baboons where it looks good. You then put on the flesh and the hair. That's how you do it. Yet someone apparently said to the director, I've never seen a baboon like that before. After he transformed the guys and tights into his savage feral beast, I said, well, the baboons had alopecia

where you lose all your hair. Scott continued. I copied that from the baboon I saw in the car park, which had alopecia. Do baboons have tails? I don't. Why do these baboons? baboons have tails. Well, and what did baboons look like at that point in history, I guess?

How much evolutionary change has happened in this short but semi-long amount of time? So let us know in the comments of baboons that tails. And the baboons are the one, are teetering on that edge of like, I can't tell if these look naturalistic. Their jaws open so wide. I know animals open, they jaws pretty wide. I think I said it looked rough when I was like, it was weird to me. It looked a little fantastical, and I don't know if that was their choice or yeah. Denzel Washington told gaiety in a video interview in November 24 that a gay kiss between him and another actor got cut out of the film's final cut. I actually kissed a man in the film, but they took it out.

They cut it. I think they got chicken. I kissed a guy full on the lips. I guess they weren't ready for that yet. I killed him about five minutes later, Washington said. Oh, maybe that's what the controversy is about. Sure. Okay.

Who did he? Because the one guy. He was talking with the drunk guy. Yeah, I don't know. Not the Senate guy. Yeah. I mean, he definitely kissed the Senate guy when he's taking his house and stuff. Yeah, but the Senate guy.

He gives him on the lips, though. The Senate guy. He kisses one other guy. Now I'm trying to figure out who that was. The Senate guy lived way longer than that. Justice for the kiss. Release the butthole cut. All that shit.

Just kiss. Barry Keogun. How do you say it? Yeah, it was good. Barry Keogun was originally cast as Emperor Gata, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Fun. I wonder with what? It was reported.

that Timothy Chalemay, Miles Teller, Austin Butler, Richard Madden, and Paul Muskell met or audition for Sir Ridley Scott with Meskow being one of the first and leaving a lasting impression on Scott. Dude, we called out a couple of those names. You did, actually, I was impressed. I like Timothy Shalemate, but I'm glad it was not him.

This is Denzel Washington's first supporting... This is Denzel Washington's first supporting role in a movie since Antoine Fisher back in 2002. Wow. Some spoilers for you, gentlemen. It's right, because you've got to be the lead. Oh, although Han Zimmer did not return to compose the music for the film. Harry Gregson

Williams signed on and was mentored in his early years by Hans Zimmer, collaborating in the legendary composer on films like The Rock and Crimson Tide. The film never explains how emperors, Gata, and Karkala came to power. In real life, after Comedus died, there was

a quick succession of five monarchs who fought for power in 193 CE called the Year of the Five Emperes, ending with Septimus Severus, taking the throne with the Senate's approval. Septimus reigned for 18 years before he was succeeded by his son's Gaeta and Carcala, who made

co-emperors in the years in the years before his death. Both men were unrelated to Marcus Aurelius and his children, Cometheus and Lucila. Well, there you go. I mean, that was at least some history there, I guess. Yeah. It would have been nice to seen that. We're here even talk

about it. I guess because especially with characters like that in a movie like this that is reminiscent, then without that connective tissue part of your brain, I think, just goes, oh, you guys are commentists now, you know, rather than defining them as their own two guys. And they're

not on screen quite as much as I might have expected. No. To really drive home them as more than just like one antagonistic force with two fun varieties of face. They're just colorful performances that like wanted, liked having power. Well, this answer

is a question I had. Ridley Scott did not need to pay Russell Crow anything or need his permission to reuse footage from the first film. Yeah. As per Crow's original contract in the sequel. However, he nonetheless paid him $50,000 as a goodwill gesture. Aw, that's nice. I'd say easy

50 credit to me. Hey, can we use some archival footage? We're not even going to AI you. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you literally don't have to do anything. We're just going to for the footage you did in the first. Just going to remind people to watch Gladiatea. I guess I'll just do one more. Follow your

heart, Andrew. The unnamed disease that Karkala is suffering from is implied to be syphilis. This explains the lesions on his face and why Gata remarks that the disease from his loins had spread to his brain. What made you say syphilis? It's the one STI I'm aware of that historically, yeah, is like known to infect your brain

and drive you mad and in a particularly icky way. And especially in earlier times, I think Hitler might have even been syphilitic. But it is, yeah, notoriously icky. uh one of those diseases that that yeah can can cause a lot of trouble a lot of places wow yeah pirate pirate a lot pirates with syphilis and scurvy and things like that i just want to see the deleted scene of them getting the water out with the sharks i want to do that i want that to the crew yeah okay guys were you not entertained to let us know down in the comments below be merciful with the comments yes merciful up and yeah we love you guys and we'll see you guys

in the next one one deuces big kiss on the mouth Kiss on the mouth! Cows on the mouth! Cowards! That's right. That's for you, Denzo. Kiss them.