Una de romanos

This is a bit of an oddball of a movie. It is highly entertaining and it seems to have some very good and original ideas, but it is a bit messy in it's execution. The movie gives a highly detailed view of ancient Rome. Just like series such as Hercules and Xena, this movie transposes thoroughly modern plots and characters on a historical setting, thus sacrificing historical accuracy. Though I've to say that unlike Hercules and Xena, this is not fantasy. The plot is fairly contrived, but exiting 'till the. The settings and backgrounds are convincing. The acting is is good. There's only one minor fault which bothered me. Me personally, I love Bryan Brown and Amanda Pays. But their accents are continents apart, from each other as well as from Rome, and that disturbed my suspense of disbelief to such an extent, that I didn't enjoy the acting, plot and setting as much as I should've. But if you're not a nitpicker like me and you like the genre, then you'll probably enjoy this movie.

It was inevitable that someone should try to make a movie out of Lindsay Davis's Falco novel, which is one of the most original and witty comic-thriller series around currently, but it is a shame that this one fails so badly to convey the humourous detective-noir cynicism of Falco, or the rich supporting cast of characters that Davis employs so well. The visual effects are very good, and Rome looks great, and Brown - accent aside - is a suitable Falco, hardbitten, yet softhearted, but the plot is a mish-mash, drawing elements from the first three Davis novels, and combining them with a new subplot involving Falco owning a gladiator slave, who is forced into a duel to the death with his she-gladiator lover, and another involving a religious cult, resulting in a badly garbled story and a feeble ending. Davis's books would make an excellent series of films, or even a TV series, but the writers will need to do better than this.

Entertaining movie but many unintentionally funny moments. Reminiscent of Hercules and Xena tv series. Bryan Brown's accent is distracting, especially in the narration. Hunky kickboxer Matthias Hues is fun to watch as Justus. Suspenseful plot. "Gladiator" is much better.

I'm not a purist. I don't care if they film the Bible and it comes out as "Top Gun", as long as it is a good movie. This is a good movie and doesn't deserve the bum rap it gets. If it were made in the US we'd have had James Garner in the title role instead of Brian Brown, but who cares. This is a clever story that is well filmed and acted and keeps promising more. It delivers via solid performances and great twists in the plot. I'd kill to have this on DVD or VHS. Watch it on TV and see what you think. I think you'll bemoan the fact this wasn't made into a series or a TV series, at least. This should have been one of those cult films only the acting is probably too good.

Bryan Brown's Australian accent almost completely ruined this film for me. I could easily see this movie as being worthy of a viewing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 just for that alone. At the very least Brown could've taken speech lessons to hide his accent. At best, someone else should've been cast in the role. By using Brown, accent and all, only seems to suggest the makers of this movie really didn't care.