Armand and not only. a film who creates one of many Nerone's portraits. not extraordinary but decent. only sin - the fear of Hans Matheson to explore new solutions for create his role more than copy of other emperor's representations. but he does a beautiful role, not real profound but honest, powerful and realistic. like many historical movies, the accuracy is not the best point and, in many scenes, Nerone seems be only sketch. but it is a good choice for an evening after work day, as mixture of history and crumbs of fairy tale, remembering Quo Vadis and the representation of the Roman emperor in different novels and in cinema. sure, the stereotypes are not the inspired ingredients and the story of Nerone could be more a story "ad usum Delphini" but the result is far to be bad.

Desertman84 Imperium: Nero, the movie, is an apologetic TV movie, part of the Imperium series.It stars Hans Matheson as Nero together with Laura Morante,Rike Schmid,John Simm and Matthias Habich.It was directed by Paul Marcus.Imperium: Nero tells the tale of Nero's unlikely ascent to the throne, and his historical fall at the hands of his own vengeful kingdom. After murdering his sister's husband on grounds of conspiracy, the increasingly incoherent Caligula exiles his grieving sibling and sets into motion a devious plan that will one-day find her son Lucius presiding over all of Rome. Beset on all sides by tyranny and bloodlust, Lucius rises to power as Nero while facing the constant wrath of all who oppose his legacy. His paranoia soon reaching a fever pitch, Nero struggles to maintain power as his army, his people, and his own mother, ultimately turn against him.Imperium: Nero is a surprisingly entertaining historical TV movie.Also,the cast involved in it are brilliant.It was also absorbing from beginning to end and the viewer may find it to fast for being 3- hour long.Unfortunately,there are a lot of flaws in it historically and it fails to clearly examine the personality of Nero particularly his madness.Being an apologetic movie,it tries humanize the main character of the story and portray him more as a person with fallacies rather than an evil one.Overall,Imperium: Nero is a great view if one is to overlook historical inaccuracies and detail.

ma-cortes This mini-series describes first the emperor Caligula become himself nutty and proclaims senator his horse , kills his brother-in-law ( Nerone's father )and exiles his sister Agripina (Laura Morante) to far island. Caligula is murdered by his generals and succeeded Claudio , he married Mesalina who will cheat him with several lovers and then she is repudiated. After that, Claudio married Agripina . She convinces Claudio for heir to Nerone (Hans Matheson) marring him to Octavia, Claudio's daughter, and disinheriting his another son, Britanico . The Nerone empire (54-68) was under influence of Burro and stoic philosopher named Lucius Anneo Seneca( Matthias Habich) his sage and wise assistant but Agripina actually governs . Then she conspires against her son and Nero orders kill her along with Britanico . At the beginning years Nero empire were peaceful and prosperous but when he turned nut-head and supported by his favourite, the evil and ambitious Tijelinus , the governed with despotism , submitted the senate and committed atrocities , pursued Christians, murdered to Burro , Seneca ,Popea , senators(Ian Richardson, Simon Andreu).. becoming an authentic tyrant . Besides , he ordered firing the ancient Roma and Christians are accused and martyrized . Deprived emperor orders burn them on flaming cross and bear a cruel martyrdom . Later on, Nero is killed and was succeeded by Galba, and empire took a while for decadence and downfall. The film is the second episode of the ¨Imperium¨ series covering the Roman empire , the first was ¨Octavius Augustus¨ with Peter O'Toole and Charlotte Rampling (as Livia). The costume design and production design hold similar features than former production but have made good use of it. Setting are pretty nice , scenarios are spectaculars . The Roman Forum , Roman Capitol , temples are well designed . It's an European co-production made by numerous countries (Italy, France, Germany )and is shot in Tunisia. This television movie has epic action , love story , exciting drama, bloody gladiator combats in the arena and lots of crowd scenes , however the runtime is overlong and a little boring . Main actors interpretation is good, as Hans Matheson and Laura Morante but Nero personage belongs forever to Peter Ustinov ( Quo Vadis) . The picture is profitable for public tendency to ¨Sword and Sandals¨ genre re-initiated with ¨Gladiator¨ (Ridley Scott). The flick will appeal to Romans genre fans and history buffs.

JediMasterCheryl For a good take on the Roman Empire watch the excellent BBC produced miniseries "I, Claudius". This just sucked. The acting was pathetic and you could almost see the actors looking at the camera. Hans Matheson was irritating. Cheese factor was so high that it promotes constipation with repeated viewings. Even Caligula was tame. I think this film was silently supported by "religious" groups who shall remain nameless ;). The overt tones of Christian favoritism and persecution were blatant if that gives any hint. Stay away what ever you do - the running time is so long that I was able to read Harry Potter's first book faster than the time it took to view this tripe.Italy has done better - don't let Hans cute face fool you. He is not a great actor...he is a great bore.