Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

A close and revealing look on human nature/basic instincts, wrapped into a visual masterpiece and daring acting - that's the reason why this movie is still after all gone by time controversial.Such producers and directors we need in our shallow and in mediocrity drowned times - any mature who cannot cope with the shown material should stick to Sesame Street and hopefully never drops by coincidence on a porn site ;)

Foremost this movie is an old memory as my parents rented it on a Betamax tape in 1984 to watch it with my grandparents during a Saturday night ! As it was very unusual for my brother and I to go to bed like this, i think we asked them the day after how was the movie and they got really upset and don't want to talk about it ! For sure i recorded the data for later and as an adult, it was a duty to look for it ! Honestly it's very hardcore, graphic and i can't fathom my parents watching it with their family as as this time in France no porn movies were aired to the TV ! The great idea of Guccione was to sell it as a Peplum and not like an adult movie ! For a naive audience (like my family), they see a cover with a roman coin so it's very innocent ! This movie is such a classic that every antiquity hot scene looks like it ! The girls, and especially Anneka, are beautiful and are really skilled experts : all the sexual combination are done and it's totally exciting (especially the lesbian, orgy scenes)! I don't know if it's the most expensive porn movie ever but at least, the production is sumptuous and the sets looks like the best Hollywood movies (and have also some big names in it!). For me, it's thus a really must see movie !

I think John Waters could have taken this material and done a much better job with Divine as Caligula, of course. Now THAT would have been edgy and outre entertainment.Most of the talent associated with this movie washed their hands (probably literally) after the fist "f" scene. I wanted to take a shower after watching it. I know Gore Vidal, always a good sport, had his name struck from the writing credits, but thought the film was hilarious anyway. And it really is a big joke. I think Guccione was just astonished that he got the money to do it and attracted so many big names. I believe only McDowall approved of the final cut.

Yep, I am one of the unfortunate few who have sat through this onslaught of vicious and violent pornography trying to pass itself off as a historical drama. I first watched this as part of a University Dare Night, where myself and my flatmates decided to watch something really racy and preferably controversial (because as we all know, when you go to University, you check your brain in at the door!).So what's the grilling? The film tells the story of Caligula, played by the always controversial Malcolm McDowell, the infamous psychotic, incestuous and delusionally murderous Caesar of Rome as he rises from his frightful youth under the rule of his Uncle Tiberius (played by Peter O'Toole, while drunk apparently), to his dominance as lord of the known World.What are the problems with this movie? Just about everything you could imagine, especially seeing as it is in fact a pornographic film. It's got all the gratuitous sex and perversion that you'd come to expect from a movie like that, the only problem being that it's not particularly sexy, if anything it would probably put you off.At the same time this is offset by incredible amounts of graphic violence, including brutal beatings, stabbings, murder, suicide, decapitation by moving wall with spinning blades, etc. This film really does push the boat out.The acting is incredibly questionable, either because you question what the actors were thinking when they did these unspeakable acts to each other, or questioning how many of these actors may or may not have been actually killed during production. Malcolm McDowell especially, who really seems to be getting into his role as the debauched ruler.I will however give this film two points. One point for the magnificent sets and locations built for the movie, which, now that I think about it, all seemed to have gone to complete and utter waste, and another point for the outfits, of which quite a lot of work appears to have gone into, for the few people who actually wear outfits and don't just wander about in the nude!Bottom line, I really cannot recommend this film on those two points alone. If you want a historical drama, this isn't for you, if you want a pornographic movie, it still isn't for you. It's incredibly violent, not sexy in the least, has no historical accuracy, and is about as fun to sit through as Root canal treatment. Stay away folks, stay far, far away!