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Taking down, not one, but eight surly gladiators in quick succession, Russell Crowe’s Maximus proves himself a real contender to Oliver Reed’s slave deaing Proximo. Slicing one opposer virtually in half across the midriff and stabbing another with dual swords, Maximus is a man in control in the ring. But it is his slaughter of the final man which shows he is truly a force to be reckoned with – as he swipes the two blades from his stab victim’s still-upright torso and, brandishing them, slices his head off with a clean scissoring sweep- demanding of the baying the crowd: ‘Are you not entertained?’ We certainly were.
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