Film of 2012 #68
From director Mike Hodges and the comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond comes a hero to save us all....FLASH ahhh saved everyone of us!! Starring Sam J Jordon as star Football player Flash Gordon, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden jounalist and Topol as Dr Hans Zarkov. They travel to the planet Mong and face off against Ming the Merciless this is a family battle with the Music of Queen to stir the heart. Dr Zarkov recoignises that recent strange weather effects on Earth are being caused from the planet Mong and he kidnapps Flash Gordon and Dale Arden and takes them with him to help solve the issue. Then you have the story as the figure out what is happening and what they have to do to fix the issue.
The acting is campy and the outfits are totally cheesy and this is very child friendly, you have Timothy Dalton and Brian Blessed as bad guys? With Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless, this film is a lot of fun but is very dated and very simple with a lot happening but not a lot of it that meaningful to me. The best part of the whole film is the sound track provided by Queen. With some great music including the title rack Flash Gordon and I will listen to this in the future however not that sure I will watch the film again.
Overall this film is an 80's campy classic but overall it is not that great and not worth seeing in my opinion, it is 2 stars and only worth seeing for nostalgia and if you want to see how comic book films were done in the 80's and late 70's.
Film of 2012 #16
Some Spoilers
The classic 80's film where a Scotsman plays an Egyptian, a Frenchman plays a Scotsman and Clancy Brown steals every scene that he is in. I have seen this film so many times and back in my early teens me and several of my friends tried to re-write and film a new version if this film. We were not very organised and I think it lasted 2 days across a Summer holiday, but this film holds a special place in my nostalgic heart. Christopher Lambert plays the title character who cannot die and you see his story across the years until present day New York and the gathering. You have Sean Connery as his mentor and an Egyptian who worked for a Spanish King. The final main character is Clancy Brown as the main bad guy and another Immortal playing the Kurgan an evil and vindictive man. Now this film's basic concept is that throughout time individuals are born who cannot die unless their head is removed, and over time they will get whittled down to one who will win the great prize of power and knowledge. The major problem comes when you try to look at this film and analyse the ideas behind it and what it tries to do and then you end up with so many questions and plot holes it is ridiculous. But I think that if you just watch it as a film about sword fights and fights across time it is a fun romp which poses some interesting questions on what would you do if you were immortal. Finally the sound track for this film is almost more iconic than the film with most of the songs written and performed by Queen and it is tremendous and I could actually listen to the sound track all of the time. Now if you need coherent film making with no dodgy effects this film is not for you, if you just want the fun of sword play and great tunes then give this film a go, by the way I like the sequels as well even though they introduce a new idea that ruins the original idea but anyway give it a watch. This is a 4 star film for me, the soundtrack alone and some of the witty comments are brilliant but overall I think it is the deep sense of nostalgia I get whenever I watch this film.
