Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

drystyx The Last Days of Pompeii will of course end with the great volcano. Until then, as you can guess, we get sword and sandals.However, in a style that reminds us somewhat of de Mille, we get fantastic imagery and spectacular scenes, along with epic historical characters.It does lack de Mille's brisk pace and comic relief, the comic relief provided by Overman and Tamirof in some of de Mille's best works.And it is probably the lack of timely comic relief that makes this lull, particularly in the first half.The second half is very brisk and crisp, however. It should make modern sword and sandal film makers very jealous.The imagery is perhaps even better than de Mille. The hunky statue of the gladiator in the final scenes is almost as striking as de Mille's use of female beauty, and even reminds us of the beautiful femme fatale of Northwest Mounted Police.Great acting, and most people will probably be most acquainted with the charismatic Basil as Pontius. His Pontius is a modern caring man. Indeed, the original Pontius was somewhere between the "thinker" and the "monster" and it seems no one wants to go in between the extremes. He savagely saw the Hebrews as a people not his own. However, odds are he did want to release Jesus. That doesn't make him less savage. It just means he was a strict "lawman", and Jesus wasn't the "punk" sort he felt needed to be crucified.The effects were astounding, and the extras should have gotten an all time Academy Award for best extras. They worked their butts off, and emoted better than most modern day stars.Crisp, brisk, full of art. With added comic relief and a brisker beginning, it would've easily been 10/10. This was a clever, well designed film, with characters we could care about.

froberts73 I enjoyed the movie for the most part, but it gave a new meaning to the word 'talkie'. Of course, you have to set the plot leading up to the biggie when the mountain blew its top and blew li'l Pompei off the map.The volcanic blow-up looked like one of those elementary school projects. You know, a piece of cardboard, all the necessary ingredients, then light 'er up.I always list "King Kong" as my favorite movie - the original not the schlock versions that came later. The newer ones, of course, had the advantage of modern special effects, but they lacked the heart of the original.The KK team was responsible for the Pompeii pic and, I guess, I expected more. The end of picture excitement was worth the wait - sort-of, but falling buildings and the human inhabitants never seemed to make actual contact.The story, of course, was historically inaccurate but, so what? Chalk that up to literary license.The acting was uniformly respectable and, by the way, I was proud of the discreet way the performers traipsed around in those early versions of male miniskirts without revealing the non-revealable.I don't mean to sound too negative. Truth to tell I was enraptured by the story. Preston Foster was quite good - well - they all were.Love the creative team that worked on this. It was a helluva lot better than the dismal "Son Of Kong," but did not measure up to the real "King." Excuse me. That would be Jesus, not the giant ape.

Michael O'Keefe RKO Radio epic in grand style. Title is taken from a Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel, the movie does not employ its plot, story line or characters. Even an opening disclaimer denies any historical content besides using the eruption of Mount Vesuvious in 79 AD. as climatic backdrop. Marcus(Preston Foster), an Ancient Roman blacksmith is forced to become a gladiator after his wife and son are accidentally killed. He takes a young boy Flavius(David Holt) under his wing and raises him as his own. Basil Rathbone is superb as Potius Pilate,who is preoccupied with the execution of Jesus Christ. Marcus witnesses Christ's march to Calvary and later calls for divine help in saving the life of Flavius as Vesuvius erupts. Other players: John Wood, Alan Hale, Louis Calhern, Edward Van Sloan and Zeffie Tilbury.

telegonus The Last Days Of Pompeii tells the story of a poor blacksmith in ancient Rome who becomes a gladiator and in turn a wealthy man, while his son, upon encountering Jesus, grows up to become a Christian. The film is a spectacle from the middle thirties, after the De Mille manner, which is to say it tries to look big but is actually, upon closer examination, at best mid-sized. RKO didn't really have the bucks to make a film on as lavish a scale as they surely would have wished. The film has many flaws, but also virtues. It was made by the King Kong team of Ernest Schoedsak and Merian Cooper, who were very resourceful gentlemen, highly creative and not at all like other Hollywood film-makers, and therefore the movie has a unique style that's difficult to put into words. The best way I can describe their approach is to say that it's highly individual; its makers had their own way of doing things, and therefore told their their story, or more properly showed it, so that the movie doesn't resemble other films with similar themes. Also on the plus side is its cast, not of thousands, maybe of hundreds; more likely of dozens. In the leading role Preston Foster's anchors the film in a kind of emotional reality. He may not have been the most versatile of actors but he was a most sincere one, and he is excellent in the lead. Also good is Basil Rathbone as Pontius Pilate, surprisingly unhammy. It's a very good movie overall, hokey as hell but always watchable, and in the end, while the spectacle of Mount Vesuvius erupting isn't all it might be, the movie as whole at least holds firm, and I for one was moved by it, not to tears maybe, but in a more modest way, by the smaller, more intimate tale of a good man who comes to his senses too late, at least for redemption in this world.