'Spartacus'

My first recollection of a film named "Spartacus" was when I saw the film "That Thing You Do," a really smart, funny and original movie that chronicled the rise and fall of a fictional 1960s pop-rock band.

In it, the main character, Guy Patterson, attempts a Kirk Douglas impersonation and states, "I am Spartacus."

I assume he was trying to reference the end of this movie although I don't understand it's relation to the Patterson character and the leader of a rebel slave army and claiming to be someone your not in order to be sacrificed for some kind of principle.

I was slightly thankful that the allusion didn't make sense. As it turns out, I wasn't missing out on anything.

This movie is 69 percent better if you take out the love interest. Didn't need it. Tell us the history. Paint for us first century Roman empire.