BaronBl00d As far as sword and sandal movies go, Gladiators 7 is acceptable. It has a relatively fast-paced zip, some interesting sets and costumes, some bad yet not horrible acting, and loads of action - the primary reason anyone is watching this in the first place. The story deals with Darius from Sparta, having beaten a slew of Roman adversaries in the arena in Rome and being spared for his fighting abilities, going back home to find his father dead and a new, villainous ruler in place(his name sounded like Yaba?). Anyway, Darius returns home and finds soldiers out to kill him so he enlists the aid of six former gladiator-friends - very much like the fashion seen in The Magnificent Seven or The Seven Samurai - only not nearly as convincing in either of those great classics. I will confess that some of the gladiator actors were pretty decent and humour is laced liberally throughout the film. The film does, as aforementioned, have some pretty good action scenes, some big fights, and a couple beauties(though we so see oh too little from either). Again, as sword and sandal films go, this one is not all that bad.

bensonmum2 If you've seen either Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, the plot of Gladiators 7 should seem familiar. Gladiators 7 is the Italian/Peplum take on this winning formula. To help him avenge his father's death, Darius (Richard Harrison) rounds up six of his gladiator buddies. They train together, laugh together, and fight together with defeating a much larger and better armed force as their ultimate goal. As I said, it's not very original, but that's just part of the problem. The biggest issue I have with Gladiators 7 is with its lead, Richard Harrison. He's so unappealing that I could have cared less about what happened to him. He's dull and incredibly hard to root for. A few original twists to the plot and a different actor playing the film's main character might have made Gladiators 7 a good movie.

MARIO GAUCI Although only a few days have elapsed since I've watched this one, I've already forgotten practically everything about it – as my memories of the film seem to have melted into all the other peplums I've been watching of late! Obviously, from the title one can gather that it's basically a transposition of the SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)/THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) plot to the Roman Empire – and the rating suggests that I found it to be a middle-of-the-road peplum, not very good perhaps but not especially bad either. Richard Harrison is the lead here and, while he may not have much range as an actor, at least he's not as wooden as Dan Vadis; as a matter of fact, over the last week, I've watched two films – and both, incidentally, turned out to be more or less of the same quality – by either of these Euro-stars. I do recall, however, that the print utilized for the DVD transfer of GLADIATORS SEVEN was perhaps the best of all the English-dubbed peplums I rented and, surprisingly enough, it was presented in the correct aspect ratio (unlike the majority of the titles, which were available only in horrendous pan-and-scan editions).

dbborroughs Darius, son of of the king of Sparta is thrown into the arena for allowing five gladiators to escape. Fighting and winning a huge victory he is freed. Returning home he finds his father dead, supposedly a suicide, but really murdered by the new King. Rounding up the gladiators he helped escape he fights to get back his throne. This is a good movie. It starts and goes right to the end with no side trips. Even the romance which normally handled badly in most films of this type doesn't intrude, although it isn't really resolved either. Its the perfect rainy day film where everything simply works.