Gladiator/Immortals/The Eagle (DVD)

A triple-bill of historical action adventures. In 'Gladiator' (2000), after the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) betrays the Emperor's beloved General Maximus (Russell Crowe) and takes the throne for himself. Maximus is sold as a slave and then trained as a gladiator, keeping himself strong with thoughts of vengeance. Eventually he is taken to the Colosseum, where he prepares to fight in a contest presided over by the corrupt Commodus. Will he suffer the ultimate humiliation and die for the entertainment of his enemy or will he survive the rigors of the arena and find a way of exacting his revenge? In 'Immortals' (2011), the power-hungry King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) has laid waste to Greece in his search for the legendary Epirus Bow, a weapon of limitless power that, in the wrong hands, could bring about the end of human life. Ancient law dictates that the Gods must not intervene in human conflict, and so they remain powerless to stop Hyperion and his merciless hordes - until young peasant Theseus (Henry Cavill), secretly chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans/John Hurt), steps forward to save the day. Finally, in 'The Eagle' (2011), Channing Tatum stars as Marcus Aquila, a young Roman soldier in 140 AD Roman-occupied England, who sets out to honour his father's memory by tracking down the long-missing Roman Ninth Legion in which his father once served. Accompanied only by his British slave, Esca (Jamie Bell), Marcus travels beyond Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia to confront its savage tribes and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.