Hello all! It has been quite a week in Mangyland . . . the Skeleton Crew is going tremendously well. The crowd is really into it. If you're ever down in Nashville on a Tuesday, come on out!

Well, the past couple of Russell Crowe columns got me more feedback than anything I've done before. I got a lot of great response. In fact, Deanna, whose letter I posted in my last column, wrote me back saying she found the column funny! GOOD FOR YOU, Deanna! Keep coming back! Wow, I guess people DO come to this site . . . WOOHOO!

With more and more people coming to the site, I am completely thrilled with what we're doing here, and I am ecstatic about the response. Since I am an entrepreneur, and I love to beat a dead horse, I decided to do the unthinkable.

I rented "Gladiator."

I decided to be fair . . . it would be wrong of me to mock Russell Crowe (check the Archives for all the dirt) without watching the man's work. That, and I was running out of ammo.

As a movie, "Gladiator" is, well . . . really dark. Not dark as in "Watch me brood" dark (although it does have a lot of that), but just dark . . . I couldn't see anything. All of the intense battle scenes were kinda jumbly, a little slow-motion here, a quick blur of something there, and the occasional exploding head.

Also, the pacing of the movie seemed really slow. It's one of those movies where it could have been a half-hour shorter if the characters would just walk and talk a little faster. I kept thinking to myself, "Dammit, spit it out! SPEED IT UP!"

Another thing I noticed about it . . . I've never seen a movie with so much intense whispering. It seems every time a British person needs to talk to the GLAY-diatuh, it always came out like this: "MAXIMUSwhisperwhispermumblemumbleMAXIMUS . . ." This is all part of the time-honored British acting tradition of whispering to make something seem REALLY important. With Sir Richard Harris, the late Oliver Reed, and Derek Jacobi all in the same film, the movie is a veritable whisper-fest.

I also realized how lame the promotional campaign for this movie was . . . remember all of the shots in the trailer, with Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba" blaring in the background? Man, I thought it was lame before I saw the movie. Now, I realize just how badly it misrepresented this movie. Kid Rock DOES NOT FIT with this movie. Crowe's character is more of a Leonard Cohen kind of gladiator.

Ah yes, Mister Crowe himself . . . well, to be honest, I think he did a damn fine job, and he was perfect for the role. A toast to you, Mister Crowe . . . although you STILL aren't the greatest actor of all time (GET OFF THE CRACK, DEANNA!). Seriously, he was very good.

Should he have won best actor? I don't know, I didn't see enough of movies last year to judge fairly. Was it the best picture of the year? I saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," so . . . NOPE!

However, Russell Crowe certainly proves in this film that he does have a truly magnetic screen presence, and he is a fine actor.

Too bad he's STILL a humorless jackass.

This is the MangyDog, over and out.