JAFFE@RUTGERS.ARPA (07/08/85)
From: Steven J. Zeve <ZEVE@RUTGERS.ARPA> Micro Review: When oh when are we going to be able to get Dino de Laurentis' foot off of the neck of SF and fantasy moviemaking? Mini Review: If you liked the Conan movies, you will probably like this one. If you didn't like the Conan movies, you might like this anyway. I can't tell if my mind is slipping or if de Laurentis is slipping and some quality slid through his concept-to-dreck conversion mechanism; the acting and plot seemed a little better than usual for his films. Although I have some quibbles with the movie due to knowing something about the characters and the "historical ages" involved, I think this is passable quality thud and bloonder once you've set your expectations down to the level of the Conan movies. Review: In general the movie flows along nicely; the plot advances smoothly, and there isn't TOO much bad dialogue. There is plenty of that fancy sword whirling that we came to know and love in the Conan movies; I would love to know where the Hyperborian people get there wrist bones from, they must be made of titanium steel alloy to whip xxxthose swords around like that all the time. There is some really nice looking scenery (no, no, not the warrior maidens or Red Sonja, I mean the hillsides, mountains, woods, and such like, that everyone gets to ride around in). The villains are acceptably villianous, the hero(in)es quite heroic in skill and attitude. The magic isn't overdone (although I can't take the wizard with 3 inch fingernails seriously at all, it always looks like he is about to stab himself in the hand), and the swordplay is nicely choreographed (but I still wonder about the wrists). In going to see the film, I had adjusted my expectation level down to where de Laurentis films seem to fall, so bad dialogue, slighty silly plot, mediocre acting, and terrible direction didn't bother me the way they did for the first Conan movie. Nevertheless, I have a few complaints about details of the movie. As in the first Conan movie, they have tampered with the "origin" of the character without sufficient justification, fortunately it is much less tampering than in the Conan movie; the tampering seems to have been done just to provide Sonja with a reason to hate the villainess, which isn't really necessary. The movie also suffers from a failure to tell you things soon enough; an example is Sonja's vow, an integral part of her character, which gets dropped on you in mid-movie. A comic relief group has been added, totally unnecessarily (one of them reminds me greatlyof Sancho Panza); they get used later and need plenty of rescuing along the way, or least one of them does, but their comic relief function generally detracts from the film along the way. One problem that irked me throughout the film is that the characters incessantly called on God when swearing, instead of their own particular god or goddess, and it is pretty clear that not one of these people believes in God. I didn't hear one call to Crom or even Mitra in the whole movie! One last quibble: although Robert E. Howard, who originally created the character, has been credited, I failed to see any credit for Marvel Comics which actually developed the version of the character that the movie is based on. This can be a fun movie if you don't mind the fact that it suffers from Dino de Laurentis syndrome (where scriptwriters and directors don't have a good feel for the genre or the characters they are working with). So turn your expectation level down and find a theatre that is showing Red Sonja for $2and watch for your own pet peeves while you viewthis movie (like I did). (If you want a GOOD movie, you should just go see Cocoon instead and skip anything that de Laurentis touched.) Oh, yes, the sexist review (for anyone still reading): Brigitte Neilsen (sp?) who plays Sonja is a superb piece of flesh and the various warrior maidens in the battle scene aren't bad either. I suspect that they will get a lot of repeat male viewers who like drooling over Sonja, especially for the opening scenes. I suspect that I can wait for the movie to make it to cable, however, before I view it again. -------