Last year the two big holiday movies were “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” known as “Barbenheimer.” This holiday season, after a long year of mediocre movies, we have two winners: “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” commonly referred to as “Gladwick.” They both opened last weekend to record crowds.

WARWICK SHOWCASE

WICKED

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(Lavish and Intimate Musical)

The long-anticipated movie, based on the award-winning Broadway musical, has finally arrived after months of heavy promotion.

And it lives up to all the hype.

The lavish sets, amazing special effects, singing and dancing, and spectacular color still allow for an intimate story about two young women, as different as night and day, who learn to like and understand each other and become close friends.

Ariana Grande is great as Glinda, the vane, pretentious, spoiled blonde who charms her way through Shiz University, doing everything she needs to get her own way.

Cynthia Erivo is even greater as Elphaba, the green complexioned witch, who accompanies her wheelchair bound younger sister to the school and catches the eye of the faculty member who teaches wizardry.

The two opposites end up rooming together and slowly bond, despite their backgrounds and obstacles thrown in their way.

Elphaba, in spite of her shyness, rebels when their professor (a goat voiced by Peter Dinklage) is taken away and caged, along with all the other animals. After learning to talk, they are seen as a threat.

The movie speaks to prejudice and hatefulness and fear of all who are different in addition to the evil of power and control.

Unrequited love gets in the way of the young students.

Glinda is madly in love with a handsome young prince, overplaying her hand to capture his attention, while he becomes infatuated with Elphaba. An unrefined Munchkin is madly in love with Glinda, while she directs his attention toward Elphaba’s sister.

Meanwhile, there is singing and dancing and festivities galore before Elphaba and Glinda go off to see the wizard and discover that things aren’t always as they seem, leading to an exciting finale to Chapter One and months to wait to see what happens to all of the characters in the second movie.

GLADIATOR II

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(Exciting, bloody sequel)

This exciting, bloody sequel opens with a spectacular battle as the Roman army under General Acacius attacks Nimbi, bringing back captors to fight as gladiators in the Colosseum.

Among them is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a mighty warrior whose history and parentage is slowly revealed in this epic tale.

He is bought by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave who has risen in power and has political ambitions.

Lucius fights and wins many battles including one against a pack of feral baboons that is heart-stopping. He also organizes his fellow gladiators in the art of defensive fighting, creating some powerful edge-of-the-seat scenes.

There’s political infighting, hand to hand combat, spectacular army battles, romance and plenty of intrigue.

History may have been bent in a few places, but the glory and splendor of Rome is fully captured in the splendid cinematography.

Lucius’ rage and compassion is shown by Mescal’s physical presence and great acting.

If you like epic movies, this is a great one to see.