Reenter the arena with ‘Gladiator II’

The sequel to a beloved 2000 film tops the releases for the week of March 4.

“Gladiator II”: Filmmaker Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning historical epic centers on the son of Lucilla, Lucius, as he makes his way back to Rome as an enslaved gladiator. Starring Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal.

“Though the script falters, the spectacle does not, and ‘Gladiator II’ is the best-looking Scott film in years,” writes Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh in her review. “Bright and bloody, sandblasted and sunworn, it has the visual crispness of the first, and it doesn’t bear the strange desaturated look of some of his recent work.”

New on DVD March 4

“Red One”: Holiday action comedy in which Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped right before Christmas, so his head of security (Dwayne Johnson) and a hacker (Chris Evans) go looking for him among mythical beasts and being.

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera”: Gerard Butler returns as Big Nick for this sequel to the 2018 heist movie that takes the action to Europe and the world of diamond thieves.

“Kraven the Hunter”: The Spider-Man antihero gets his own stand-alone movie and origin story in this comic book adaptation featuring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe.

“Lake George”: Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham star in this crime thriller as unlikely allies who set off on a road trip that evolves into something much more.

“Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance”: A young girl finds a mentor in a bounty hunter as she works to avenge her brother’s murder in this Chinese action flick.

“Levels”: Mind-bending science-fiction thriller about a man searching for answers after witnessing his girlfriend being slain.