This is How Movies Should Be Made

Absolutely amazing

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

So the other day my buddy and I got together for our monthly beer, cola, pizza and movie night. After regaling him with stories of my utter failure in life, work and love we selected this movie. I had never seen it, though I knew the Queen song of course, and for him it had been quite a while. It was.....quite the experience, to put it mildly. This flick is utterly bonkers. The acting is atrocious at times, especially the lead Hawkman (yes you read that correctly) who clearly doesn't take it serious; the set design and costumes are way, way over the top (it looks like colorblind aliens are holding a gay pride/carnival where everyone looks as ridiculous as is humanly...well...I guess...alienly possible; the editing and directing falls and fails and flails all over the place; the plot, if I may use that word ever so boldly, is so full with plot holes large enough to swallow a pyramid and coincidences that makes you want to throw stuff at the screen.Yet......is this movie a prime example of "so bad it becomes good again"? You know what, I'm bound to think it is. I was fully entertained and flabbergasted along the way. You can see what's going to happen from a mile away but for once it didn't bother me. It's just so over the top, harmless, trashy, cliché ridden, camp, low budget with big dreams that I cannot help but approve of this movie.Sure, a few annoyances. That may seem an endless list for a movie like this but since I like campy movies and its worst attributes actually make you laugh the most and that's never a bad thing, only a few things stand out.Flash is such a goodie, softie, plastic hero it doesn't always work in his favor. I also didn't like how basically everyone (Flash, the Emperor, the princess, Dale) all fall in love within two minutes. The movie makes it seem (I don't know the comics) as if Flash and Dale are total strangers, meeting on the plane, yet she professes her love for him almost immediately. The Emperor falls for Dale the second he sees her. The Princess, well, she kisses just about everyone, but she's Ming's daughter and nearly engaged, but one look at Flash's Goldilocks and she aids a revolution. I also didn't care much for the mad scientist guy, who basically kidnaps them but also forms a strong bond; who isn't the slightest bit amazed at the alien cultures but does seem to feel superior; who gets an extremely high dose of brainwash that does nothing without any explanation.I also would have liked a little more Queen since they took the music department under their wings. I like the titular song but we get little else. Oh yeah, for some reason the aliens play the Bridal March but it's the Brian May version.Richard O'Brien is severely underused. Max von Sydow appears, half way through the movie, to have decided he doesn't want to be there anymore. I also didn't really care for Timothy Dalton's character's sudden turn to Flash's side. Some scenes appear to be missing, most noticeably the capture of the Princess by the general guy (though he is pretty cool, sort of Doctor Doom's gay cousin).Worst of all is, of course, the American Football scene. The chapter is even called just that, making it the odd one out in a series of bombastic chapter titles. It's actually slightly embarrassing seeing him make a play as if one the field, and even more embarrassing that all of Ming's subordinate leaders seem to help him. Hawkman again does worse here, disabling people and then looking innocently away, even though it's blatantly obvious, utterly without motivation, completely out of the blue, and rather ridiculous to oppose the Emperor openly and then do all but whistle innocently. CONCLUSIONWell it was definitely an experience and I must say I laughed or goggled most of the time. Sure there are more problems than I could count and sometimes I hoped Flash would meat his Maker, but this movie almost gleefully bathes in campy nonsense and as such cannot really be judged by the same standards as normal movies, if there is such a thing. In the end, even if it comes rather too swift, I did enjoy it more than I disliked it, and I was glad to have watched it...I guess. Flawed beyond even what Ed Wood would consider a bad movie it has a harmless charm, and attracts through sheer and colorful weirdness. In conclusion, I feel this movie should be on every serious movie buff's menu, just so you can see for yourself what happens when a flimsy script, horrible acting, charming chaos, bight colors and a one-song soundtrack meet in a drug induced delirium in a misty back alley and is then put on a disk for your pleasure. An objective review would conclude with a 2/10 but I'm not about the delicate details of movie making, I review solely on the basis of how much it either moved or amused me. It didn't move me, but it also didn't move me closer to my inevitable suicide. An experience. 7/10

Colorful, silly fun, at times campy, Mike Hodges's 1980 "Flash Gordon" is among those movies that are less than the sum of their parts. Made on shoe-string budgets with C-picture performers and crew for young undemanding viewers, the original 1930's Flash Gordon serials are unintentionally funny to adults today. To recapture the innocence and naivete of those movies with a big budget and trained actors is a difficult task, although Hodges's "Flash Gordon" makes a decent attempt. Lorenzo Semple's screenplay tracks the original serials fairly well; Flash and Dale Arden are taken aboard Doctor Hans Zarkov's spacecraft and flown to the planet Mongo, where they battle Emperor Ming the Merciless to save the Earth. Semple's script has enough classic bad dialog to satisfy seekers of camp; "I love you Flash, but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth." However, the difference between Semple's script and the original series is that Semple knew he was writing bad dialog, while the writers of the serial were unintentionally hilarious.That difference in intention also applies to the actors; Buster Crabbe and company played the serials dead-pan straight, and those in the remake who play their parts equally straight come off best. The under-demanding role of Flash requires the skills of a Razzie Award Winning thespian, and, Sam J. Jones won a Razzie nomination for his work herein. Although not a super hero in the modern sense, the blonde hunk, who sports nothing but leather trunks in one scene, physically fills the role, and Jones manages to deliver his lines with a convincing lack of conviction as the dim, but well meaning Flash. However, the movie's scene-stealer is Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless; appropriately garbed and made-up as the evil emperor, Von Sydow plays the role with majesty and menace, which is all the more fun. Unfortunately, Topol as Doctor Zarkov, does not follow Von Sydow's example and winks and smiles as the mad scientist, telegraphing to viewers that he is in on the joke. But Brian Blessed as the winged Prince Vultan, Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin, and, especially, the delicious Peter Wyngarde as Klytus deliver their lines as though penned by the Bard himself. Although Mariangela Melato is a memorable Kala, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden should have been in the running for a Razzie alongside Jones, which is intended as a compliment.Besides Von Sydow, the film's other scene-stealer is designer Danilo Donati, who provided the lavish Fellini-esque costumes and sets. While Donati's work tends to emphasize red and gold, which may not be to everyone's taste, his outlandish designs are as entertaining as anything on display and certainly light years beyond those of the 1930's serials. If Donati or another anonymous designer created the Art-Deco spaceships, he or she too deserves kudos as do the creators of the appropriately tacky and obvious special effects, which beautifully evoke the primitive work of the 1930's serials. As contemporary and important as the art direction is the pulsating score by Queen that punctuates the action and enhances the excitement. While "Flash Gordon" is not the high camp perhaps intended, the film has a cult following and enough outstanding attributes to satisfy main-stream audiences. Led by Max Von Sydow's iconic Ming the Merciless, Queen's pounding music, and Danilo Donati's dazzling designs, "Flash Gordon" may not be to everybody's taste, but should be savored by all at least once, just for the sheer fun of it all.

I remember seeing this movie a long time ago, and thought that Ornella Muti had the most beautiful eyes in the world. A bit like the Italian version of Sharon Stone, with her mystique elegance, and her cat eyes. Somehow this movie, even though it seeming a bit corny and outdated in today's computerized universe, it still seems to stand its own. In its day, this movie was the party film of the 1980's Rock scene, which has its own place in everybody's heart, that remembers those days of the crazy colorful 80's. With the classic wonderful music by Queen, and the powerful voice of Freddie Mercury, this film will always remain as one of those 1980's classic.

Dull. Plot is random at best. The whole movie just seems to lurch from one random scene to another. Sam J Jones is wooden and unconvincing in the lead role. Supporting cast is not bad though: Max van Sydow, Topol, Brian Blessed, Timothy Dalton, Richard O'Brien. Ornella Muti (especially) and Melody Anderson are the only reasons to watch the movie, after a point...Only watched it for the Queen soundtrack, initially, and this wears thin after a while. Only so many times you can hear "Flash, aa- aah"....