DEADLINE: It will confirm your good judgment. He played a tough police detective with a tortured past named Bud White who became this symbol of masculinity. After the film played through, for awhile every pitch in Hollywood was, “imagine Bud White, as a blank.“

The reviews are in for Gladiator II ahead of its nationwide release next week, and the critics are, for the most part, not giving it the thumbs down, writing resoundingly solid reviews for the action epic that comes to theaters decades after the 2000 Ridley Scott-directed best picture Oscar winner.

The epic film "Gladiator" was one of the biggest box office hits of 2000 and is considered a classic in the filmography of British directing legend Ridley Scott alongside "Alien", "Blade Runner" and "Thelma & Louise".

The director speaks his mind on rejected sequel ideas, Joaquin Phoenix’s plan to quit the original and working with a “fractious” Denzel Washington.

Ridley Scott's sequel to the 2000 film puts the spectacular into spectacle and needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible, writes our reviewer.

Who was sceptical about reviving "Gladiator" after many years? There was no shortage of such people. And words of admiration are multiplying just before the official premiere in theatres. Let's recall that when the first information emerged that Ridley Scott was going to film a new instalment of "Gladiator,

The clock is ticking until Gladiator II hits theaters, and the buzz around the sequel is getting louder. The new excitement that follows Ridley Scott's genre-shifting masterpiece Gladiator is also hyped by the release of its positive Rotten Tomatoes score.