Reviews

I, Claudius is a thoroughly entertaining exploration of the Julio-Claudian dynasties, but don't believe those who'll tell you that it's the best television series ever, it simply isn't.

I, Claudius is essentially a series of stage plays that tends to dwell on lasciviousness to the detriment of actual history. One of the principal characters, Augustus, has been so poorly cast and so poorly written that it's damned near comedic. By all means, enjoy the show, because it is a very good series and always stays engaging. Just don't believe that this is the definitive portrayal of Roman history, because it certainly isn't.

Visually fantastic? You betcha, and unfortunately, that's about it. The characters are all virtually interchangeable; all the men are clichéd sociopaths whose only real function is protecting women, who are by the way, all portrayed as half-naked sluts. Make no mistake, this stuff comes straight from the fevered masturbatory fantasies of your average 14 year old.

This isn't necessarily even the fault of the film makers, it comes about naturally from following so closely to the comics. Unfortunately, slavish devotion to an already adolescent comic book does not equal quality. All the dialog is kept intact, and while it may read alright coming off the page, when you have real people saying these lines out loud it becomes downright silly.

A nice little mix of genres; gangster movie, period flick, fish out of water story, and even a travelogue!

The cast is excellent, even though I have trouble buying John Goodman (an actor I adore) as a wiseguy. Sam Worthington comes across great as a slightly naive kid with a good heart just rolling with the punches and unsure of himself. Bryan Brown performs admirably, Toni Collette continues to wow me (I had no idea she was actually an Aussie) and the rest of the cast acquits themselves well.

All in all, a really charming movie chock full of 60's era flourishes and cultural differences. Very entertaining.