Valuetainment - June 28, 2026


“People Want Heroes” - Russell Crowe Breaks Down Gladiator II FAILURE


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

189.56

Word count

2,197

Sentence count

128

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of The Score Bet Bet Podcast, John Rocha and Mark discuss Russell Crowe's thoughts on the new film "Gladiator 2" and why it's one of the worst movies they've ever seen.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Bet mode activated.
00:00:01.820 The Scorebet app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news.
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00:00:07.280 Well, statistically speaking.
00:00:08.840 Nah, no more statistically speaking. I want hot takes. I want knee-jerk reactions. 0.99
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00:00:30.000 gladiator one i watch it from 43 minutes on every quarter i have to watch that movie there's
00:00:34.540 something very special about that movie gladiator 2 comes out horrible i was sat through it i was
00:00:39.620 it's just too much it was it breaks my heart because denzel was in it and i'm supportive
00:00:44.360 of anything that denzel does but here's what russell crowe had to say about gladiator 2 which
00:00:49.380 by the way he wasn't even in it nothing nothing there was nothing can you imagine the emotional
00:00:55.380 the way it ends the scene show your face gladiator he turns around how dare you turn your back
00:01:02.380 against me gladiator turns around who are you and it's you know the famous line that he says
00:01:08.900 you know which ones i'm talking about here is russell crowe talking about gladiator too go for
00:01:14.160 it this is a story about a man who's avenging the death of his wife and his child 0.83
00:01:20.540 there cannot be a moment on that journey where he stops and has sex with somebody
00:01:30.640 doesn't make any sense because then that destroys the journey and they fought me and they like you
00:01:39.820 know sent me letters about it and everything and i just stuck to my guns and luckily for me
00:01:46.140 Ridley, even though he would have loved to write a sex scene with me and Connie Nielsen,
00:01:53.980 he agreed with me back then that that was the moral core of the film.
00:01:59.020 So for then, the second movie, to destroy that moral center,
00:02:06.320 very interesting, because the second movie barely took the same box office that the first movie took.
00:02:13.200 but that's 20 years later
00:02:15.120 and when you apply
00:02:16.940 how much of a change there's been on the value of a dollar
00:02:19.940 they failed
00:02:21.780 and they failed
00:02:23.540 because they didn't understand why it was successful
00:02:25.680 it was successful
00:02:27.380 because it had a moral core
00:02:29.200 and here's the deal
00:02:31.140 he's getting choked up
00:02:33.040 most people like that
00:02:35.040 you know
00:02:36.360 on the surface they'll go for entertainment
00:02:39.280 or whatever but in truth
00:02:41.120 if they're going to love something
00:02:43.060 and keep up with them forever in the way that that what a breakdown tonight anyway you i'll be
00:02:49.340 able to find you somewhere in the world that film 26 years later is on prime time television
00:02:54.260 and it's available on stream so why because the love for that thing is because of its moral
00:03:01.760 you can pause it right there what a freaking powerful breakdown ilan well i mean look look
00:03:09.260 at how when you talked about gladiator the emotional connection you have to and that's
00:03:12.580 what he's touching on he's touching on something much deeper than the film he's touching on a
00:03:16.080 directionality of things in general which is as much as hollywood hollywood may try and engineer
00:03:21.420 films that push a certain narrative our foundational beliefs our desire tend to come back to these
00:03:26.700 ancient archetypes that are repeated throughout all of history over and over and over and that's
00:03:31.360 why he's emotional about it because he created something that connects to that and people don't
00:03:35.560 want to watch a movie where someone's fighting they want to watch a movie where someone is
00:03:38.600 fighting for something and if you corrupt it then they're not only not going to be interested they're
00:03:43.940 going to be offended by it and no matter what people try and do to us look at the heroes that
00:03:48.460 we still put in marvel films look at these movies that still do extremely well they are even anti
00:03:52.700 heroes yes they have to stand for something and that thing can never be corrupted because once
00:03:58.440 it is they stand for nothing and part of us is always seeking that especially men men nowadays
00:04:03.780 are seeking for purpose identity value and we look to films as our archetypes for how we're gonna
00:04:08.660 feel about those things so gladiator in these older hollywood films really did touch on that
00:04:12.980 on i tell you i don't normally say this this is very hard for me to say this gladiator 2
00:04:17.660 is one of the worst movies i've seen in my life it's horrible that's how bad it is and the reason
00:04:23.600 why it's horrible if there was never a gladiator one maybe i would have ranked it higher but
00:04:29.400 But because there was a Gladiator 1, and Gladiator 1, exactly the way he put it together, was about a moral compass of a man protecting his wife and his kids and his family, that pride.
00:04:40.060 And you take me from that level of tension to just how sloppy the second one was?
00:04:44.420 Yeah.
00:04:44.940 It is so disappointing to see.
00:04:46.400 I'm so glad he broke it down because the entire time I'm sitting there wondering, what does Russell think about this movie?
00:04:52.620 All I thought about is, what does Russell Crowe think about Gladiator 2?
00:04:56.160 That's all I kept asking myself.
00:04:57.660 It was that horrible of a movie.
00:04:59.400 I love Gladiator so much that I couldn't watch the second movie because I,
00:05:04.140 and this is not me.
00:05:05.200 Like a lot of the market feels like this.
00:05:07.220 Everything that they touch,
00:05:08.580 they've ruined.
00:05:09.540 If you look at the streaming numbers,
00:05:11.380 I think it's three to one catalog to new release on,
00:05:14.780 on streaming movies.
00:05:16.120 And I think 75% of catalog,
00:05:18.720 like old music compared to new releases,
00:05:21.080 Pat.
00:05:21.680 The thing is like,
00:05:22.600 I saw the movie coming.
00:05:24.100 I love that movie.
00:05:25.040 I probably watch it once a year.
00:05:26.440 I couldn't do it to the original movie.
00:05:28.080 It's like cheating on your wife.
00:05:29.400 I don't know, stealing something from the story.
00:05:30.720 Interestingly enough, that's what he's talking about.
00:05:33.760 Very meta.
00:05:36.200 Tom, thoughts?
00:05:37.500 So the great art of Hollywood, and you and I lived out there, grew up out there around great storytellers.
00:05:46.420 And I knew so many people that were just great storytellers, and they couldn't get their project forward because of the industry that is Hollywood.
00:05:55.700 I once read an article about what Ben Affleck had to go through to get Argo done,
00:06:00.360 which was a passion project of his.
00:06:02.600 And it was a beautiful story.
00:06:04.560 It was done so well, the rescue of the hostages and things.
00:06:08.540 But even Ben Affleck, with his juice, couldn't get it done
00:06:12.380 because the machine that was Hollywood says,
00:06:15.060 no, we're doing this and this and this in front of it.
00:06:17.440 And you can get a movie done out of your own pocket.
00:06:21.080 You just can't get distribution.
00:06:22.560 And distribution is everything.
00:06:24.020 And right along with distribution, you have to almost double the movie budget and to put that much marketing.
00:06:29.100 So if you spend $50 making a movie, you've got to put $50 on marketing and get distribution.
00:06:33.100 And you can't do it.
00:06:34.200 And when they lose the core, because what do they stay in?
00:06:38.880 Hollywood gets stuck in ruts.
00:06:40.940 They'll do sequel upon sequel upon sequel.
00:06:43.620 Even if all the test audience screening in the sequel says there's a problem with it, they're betting on the sequel.
00:06:49.960 And they're going down, who's the next character in Marvel?
00:06:53.060 It's a guy called the Silver Sponge.
00:06:56.480 Okay, then we're doing it next.
00:06:59.020 You know, it doesn't matter.
00:07:01.260 And it's just they've lost the storytelling.
00:07:03.740 And that's what I think.
00:07:05.600 Toy Story 5.
00:07:07.200 Do we really need a Toy Story 5?
00:07:08.500 It's exactly what you're saying, is that Hollywood,
00:07:10.480 and see what you said, Elon, something has changed.
00:07:14.200 You know, the golden age of films, 70s, 80s, and certainly the 90s.
00:07:18.040 And then what happened?
00:07:19.200 Something changed in the 2000s.
00:07:20.820 it stopped being about storytellers and talent and how to make a good movie
00:07:24.960 that has an emotional center that people connect with,
00:07:27.400 and it started becoming we need to push a message.
00:07:29.880 Either we need to push a message or we're going to be lazy
00:07:31.800 and just set up a franchise.
00:07:32.620 It'll come back.
00:07:33.560 It will come back.
00:07:34.380 It will come back.
00:07:35.820 This connects to the A24 story.
00:07:37.280 That's right, yeah.
00:07:37.800 Because now we're seeing a rebirth of the industry with new creators.
00:07:40.740 Listen, favorite memories of me and my dad.
00:07:45.120 We would go to Winnettka Theater and we would sit there and watch a movie.
00:07:49.020 It was amazing. 0.93
00:07:49.900 In Iran.
00:07:50.440 We're in Iran. We would get movies, okay, in Iran because you couldn't get it.
00:07:54.440 You're living under Khomeini, and we would watch it translated in Farsi. 0.88
00:07:58.460 So Rocky spoke to me in Farsi, gremlins in Farsi, goonies in Farsi. 0.99
00:08:03.580 You would watch these movies, Pinocchio in Farsi, all of these things in Farsi,
00:08:08.020 and you would just enjoy that moment with that individual, right?
00:08:10.960 So let me, I have to read this scene with, you know, the movie Gladiator where he says,
00:08:16.100 My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north, general of Felix Legion's, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance in this life or the next.
00:08:34.460 Oh, my God.
00:08:36.860 It's crazy.
00:08:37.520 It's crazy.
00:08:38.600 The scene where he says, I want to be free as well one day, the owner, and he says to him, win the crowd.
00:08:46.100 When you're freedom, all these small death, the one line about death.
00:08:50.820 I don't know if you remember the one line about death where he says death smiles at us all.
00:08:56.240 All a man can do is smile back.
00:08:58.580 Can you imagine how great these are just a beautiful set of lines in this movie?
00:09:03.880 So anyways, maybe the next scene is the next scene.
00:09:05.640 We're sure watching Gladiator time when we go, you know, Hans Zimmer, right?
00:09:11.160 Is it Hans Zimmer? The one song? Yeah, it's great.
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