RETURN OF THE GLADIATOR - Children of Men

RETURN OF THE GLADIATOR: “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?” Lewd jokes aside, this latter day peplum is exactly the sort of thing Captain Oveur was talking about. Brad Harris stars as an ex-gladiator who rose through the military ranks only to be chosen for an undercover mission that utilizes all his old skills and contacts. Bearing its original title Three Giants of Rome, MYA Communications DVD is a pretty rough presentation, looking to be several generations removed from the original negative. But that doesn’t detract from the cheesy charm of director Bitto Albertini’s sword and sandal hijinks. The film adopts the breezy comic spirit of similar Spaghetti Westerns of the day, particularly in the form of actor Raf Baldassarre whose “thief with a heart of gold” character takes his fair share of punishment including being doused in urine. As the film’s lead, Harris certainly has the biceps for the part, but lacks that indefinable star quality. He’s merely a tool in Albertini’s walk-through of a genre whose path has grown entirely too predictable. Return of the Gladiator still packs the screen with thousands of extras, but it gets more mileage out of a few bad jokes and bodily humor. No extras or subtitles are included on the non-anamorphic DVD. Audio options are limited to English dubbed or Italian, both mono mixes. CHILDREN OF MEN: The British always seem to end the world with a whimper rather than a bang. Adapted from the work of mystery novelist P.D. James, it is the year 2027 and the world is dying a slow death after 18 years of infertility. Britain has closed its borders and actively rounds up illegals for deportation. The global atmosphere is one of gloom, doom and decay. From this prophecy of pessimisms emerges a miracle, a ‘fugee named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), inexplicably pregnant and in the care of anti-government activists. Through a series of clandestine plots and double-crosses, Kee winds up on the run with Theo (Clive Owen) on a near suicidal journey to reach the sea and a tenuous rescue by The Human Project. Despite the sci-fi element, Children of Men is a particularly human story that takes on much more cultural meaning by virtue of director Alfonso Cuaron’s (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) incisive creative choices than it likely did on the page. His bold camera techniques make us a culpable accessory to his character’s actions, dragging us through tense car chases and battle sequences that look nothing like their Hollywood counterparts; ultimately inspiring us to fight, sacrifice, and even die for a cause the rest of world is too self-involved to notice, despite the fact that the survival of the species depends on it. Viewing Universal’s Blu-ray is like looking at the film with a new set of glasses. The centerpiece of the extras is the documentary The Possibility of Hope, made by Cuaron to support the many talking points the film brings up. The film’s ingenious handheld camera work and action choreography is detailed in the segment Under Attack while Creating the Baby focuses on the climactic birth sequence, breaking down the computer generated accomplishment in a wordless montage of truly brilliant but seamless effects work.