Aaaaah the '80s. I don't think this movie could have been made in any other decade. I mean, who is this movie aimed at? Misleadingly disguised as an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade", plot and story seem fitting for five to seven year olds (I was around that age when I first saw it), though I believe that any Ninjago episode is more complex when it comes to story and character development nowadays. It is emphasised even more by the framing of the mother reading a bedtime story narration type. On the other hand you have pretty spooky, however halloweeny visuals. I mean, show me a single pg-13 movie or any kids movie post Toy Story, where you have skinned like skeleton ghoul get his head punched clean off by the main hero, another one having his chest punched through and his heart ripped out Kano style (even 1995's Mortal Kombat didn't get anywhere close to this). Or a disgusting zombie, oozing with poster paint blood and green dishwashing soap, getting it's arm ripped off, leaking more of disgusting food dyes by Lou Ferrigno?
Forget The Room, forget Battlefield Earth, forget the classics like Plan 9 from Outer Space or Troll 2. In this Italian/ Canon international epic, (attempting to compete with Arnold's efforts, I guess) you have it all. Bad writing, bad acting, magnificently bad, italian style dubbing, cheesy, misplaced and yet so satisfying italian synth score. Lou Ferrigno trying his high-school-play-best, flexing those pecs in every shot possible, even sort of breaking the fourth wall every now and then. John Steiner chewing every single scene in a grand, over the top, theatrical, cliche villainous performance. At the same time it is shot in a somewhat competent way, and rather easy to follow. Looks better and more coherent than Ferrigno's Hercules movies. The action might be considered dull, but hey, in the age of shaky cam and 30 edits per second, the fact they went for the opposite- long shots in slow motion (in order to stretch it to full feature I suppose, though apparently original cut was 3 unreleasable hours long) just shows that even making a bad movie is a lost craft.
And don't even get me started on how progressive this movie is for it's time. Forget Avengers. Sinbad and his colorful gang of Village People from all over the world will deliver some serious cheesy one liners, and punch the whole army of non CGI henchmen in glorious slow motion like there's no tomorrow. And on top of that, there is a scene where undead knight in a full plate armor riding a horse rises from the grave. ON A HORSE! IN SLOW MOTION! IN A MASTERSHOT!
Despite being potentially nostalgia biased, a nearly 30 years gap between viewings changes perspective. From seeing it as an exciting, swashbuckling and somewhat scary adventure as a kid, it turned into this time capsule gem. An effort of miscalculated competence, ingenuity in the face of budgetary limitations, an effort of pure heart and joy of straightforward action adventure movie making.
Some may call it utterly horrible, I call it utterly priceless. A must watch for a so bad it's good flicks lover.
Forget The Room, forget Battlefield Earth, forget the classics like Plan 9 from Outer Space or Troll 2. In this Italian/ Canon international epic, (attempting to compete with Arnold's efforts, I guess) you have it all. Bad writing, bad acting, magnificently bad, italian style dubbing, cheesy, misplaced and yet so satisfying italian synth score. Lou Ferrigno trying his high-school-play-best, flexing those pecs in every shot possible, even sort of breaking the fourth wall every now and then. John Steiner chewing every single scene in a grand, over the top, theatrical, cliche villainous performance. At the same time it is shot in a somewhat competent way, and rather easy to follow. Looks better and more coherent than Ferrigno's Hercules movies. The action might be considered dull, but hey, in the age of shaky cam and 30 edits per second, the fact they went for the opposite- long shots in slow motion (in order to stretch it to full feature I suppose, though apparently original cut was 3 unreleasable hours long) just shows that even making a bad movie is a lost craft.
And don't even get me started on how progressive this movie is for it's time. Forget Avengers. Sinbad and his colorful gang of Village People from all over the world will deliver some serious cheesy one liners, and punch the whole army of non CGI henchmen in glorious slow motion like there's no tomorrow. And on top of that, there is a scene where undead knight in a full plate armor riding a horse rises from the grave. ON A HORSE! IN SLOW MOTION! IN A MASTERSHOT!
Despite being potentially nostalgia biased, a nearly 30 years gap between viewings changes perspective. From seeing it as an exciting, swashbuckling and somewhat scary adventure as a kid, it turned into this time capsule gem. An effort of miscalculated competence, ingenuity in the face of budgetary limitations, an effort of pure heart and joy of straightforward action adventure movie making.
Some may call it utterly horrible, I call it utterly priceless. A must watch for a so bad it's good flicks lover.