FIRE AND ICE

 

Publicity poster for Fire and Ice (© Ralph Bakshi/Frank Frazetta/Producers Sales Organization/20^th Century Fox – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 16 March 2023 was the 198os animated dark fantasy/swords & sorcery movie Fire and Ice, which I'd wanted to watch for a very long time but only obtained in DVD format very recently.

Directed by Ralph Bakshi, featuring characters created by him and acclaimed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, and released in 1983 by 20^th Century Fox, Fire and Ice presents its take on the only-too-familiar and all-too-predictable fantasy-themed plot of an evil despot seeking to conquer a rival kingdom but is challenged by a heroic warrior.

Thus: Lord Nekron (voiced by Sean Hannon), evil ruler of his ice kingdom, is threatening to over-run and decimate via his dark magic the fiery volcanic realm of his avowed rival, King Jarol (Leo Gordon). As a means of subjugating Jarol, Nekron sends a delegation of subhumans to abduct Jarol's daughter, Princess Teegra (Cynthia Lake for rotoscoping, but voiced by Maggie Roswell), which they do, but hot on their heels, journeying from fire to ice, literally, is youthful but valiant warrior Larn (Randy Norton), whose entire village had earlier been destroyed by Nekron's horde. Larn is assisted in his bold quest by a mysterious masked horseman and highly skilled, Conanesque warrior named Darkwolf (Steve Sandor), who has reasons of his own (but which he never reveals) to destroy Nekron.

Although more impressive than a previous Bakshi animated fantasy movie, Wizards, that I'd watched a few weeks earlier, I must confess that, in stark contrast to my high expectations based upon all that I'd read about it in the past, I wasn't overly enamoured by Fire and Ice.

The human characters are largely rotoscoped, as is common in Bakshi's animated movies, and therefore always look impressive and extremely life-like. Conversely, the plot is for me a very pedestrian, somewhat plodding affair, not picking up any real pace until two thirds of the way through its 90-minute running time, even though, paradoxically, it is packed with action.

Although this movie does feature a humungous octopus, a giant lizard, and a phalanx of flighting, pterodactylian dragon hawks, with the exception of the last-mentioned type (animated by nowadays-renowned Korean-American animator Peter Chung in his debut big-screen role) their appearances are far too brief to be effective. Certainly, it could have benefited from more prominent monsters in its prehistoric/barbarian-based fantasy world to add spectacle, especially with the incomparable Frazetta on board, whose significant input via this movie's beautiful background visuals, incorporating over a thousand paintings, as well as the design of its human lead characters, most notably the bodacious Teegra, is readily apparent.

(Having said that, Frazetta didn't actually produce the background paintings himself. Instead, they were meticulously prepared in the style of his work by two young artists who both went on achieve considerable fame in their own respective right. One was James Gurney, who subsequently created and illustrated the best-selling Dinotopia fantasy/sci fi novels. The other was Thomas Kinkade, the so-called 'Painter of Lights', who has achieved immense commercial success via his innumerable 'chocolate-box'-style paintings of rural cottages with their trademark glowing, interior-lit windows and idealized, leafy woodland/countryside settings.)

Just a little humour here and there wouldn't have gone amiss either – Fire and Ice is a VERY serious movie indeed. Time to rewatch Fritz the Cat? Now there's a Bakshi animated movie with humour, not always tasteful, needless to say, but it certainly keeps the movie ticking along at a fair old pace, unlike the less than blazing progression of Fire and Ice.

But if you want to judge for yourself, be sure to click here to watch an official Fire and Ice trailer on YouTube. Moreover, at the time of my posting this Shuker In MovieLand review, the entire movie can be watchd free of charge on YouTube by clicking here.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM

Video front cover for Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (© Héctor Olivera/Roger Corman/Concorde Pictures/Juno Media/Medusa Home Videos – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Last night I returned to my collection of big box ex-rental videos to watch an absolute classic, staple movie from the era of 1980s video rental shops – Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.

Directed by Héctor Olivera under the auspices of Roger Corman during a run of 10 movies that Corman producd in Argentina during the 1980s, and released in 1985 by Concorde Pictures, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom is a swords and sorcery movie that packs into 90 minutes virtually every S&S meme and motif that you can shake a sword at – and then some – albeit with wildly differing degrees of success. (Worth noting, incidentally, is that its original cut was only 58 minutes long, so to pad it out Corman incorporated excerpts from some of his earlier S&S movies, such as Battle Beyond The Stars, Sorceress, and Deathstalker!)

So: virtuous king of a faraway land cruelly betrayed by his haughty queen and slain by his evil supercilious wizardly vizier – check. Youthful rightful heir to the throne forced to flee to escape vizier's clutches – check. Said youthful rightful heir championed by a laconic rebel adventurer armed with a ready supply of quips as well as a hefty sword – check. A motley assortment of monsters, especially of the actors wearing monster masks kind – check. Villainous but inane henchmen who perform more pratfalls and double-takes than Peter Glaze on Crackerjack (an allusion specially for British TV viewers of a certain age to enjoy!) – check. A vertically-challenged comic-relief character (in this instance a hobgoblin) – check. A giant furry friend of the youthful heir (in this instance an albino wookie, or something like that!) – check. And so on.

The plot is both formulaic and episodic. His name notwithstanding, evil wizard and erstwhile king's counselor Shurka (Thom Christopher) does not shirk from killing his noble monarch King Tylor (Augusto Larreta) in order to seize the throne of Axeholme, with the approval of his lover Udea (Barbara Stock), Tylor's traitorous queen. All Shurka needs now to gain absolute power is the magical ring owned by Tylor's good wizard Wulfrik (Edgardo Moreira) – but before he has chance to claim the ring, Wulfrik magics it away to safety with his teenage son Simon (Vidal Peterson) and Simon's huge hirsute companion Gulfax (Moreira again, but now in a white wookie-lite suit) – or so Wulfrik thinks.

Unbeknownst to him, however, the ring falls off Simon's finger at the precise moment that he and Gulfax are teleported out of Tylor's royal castle, the ring falling into the open jaws of a stone pantheresque statue in the castle's throne room where it remains hidden throughout almost the entire movie from the array of servants sent by Shurka to locate it.

Simon and Gulfax, meanwhile, find themselves lost in a forest far beyond the castle, but soon encounter a rugged rogue adventurer modestly (and alliteratively) known as Kor the Conqueror (Bo Svenson). Kor agrees to assist Simon in his goal to return to the castle and avenge the death of his father (whom Shurka has also slain) as well as that of the king, and rescue the king's teenage daughter Princess Aura, whom Shurka has imprisoned but secretly plans to marry, thereby betraying Queen Udea just like she betrayed the king.

The remainder of the movie sees Kor, Simon, and Gulfax fighting a succession of monsters, some serving as henchmen of Shurka, others serving simply as plot devices to keep the movie's momentum from slumping. So we have an alluring maiden named Acrasia (Maria Socas) who bewitches young Simon with her womanly wiles and a flagon of wine before turning into a hideous gigantic insect ready to devour him before he comes to his senses and dispatches her. Whether still inebriated or not I'm not sure, but no sooner has Simon escaped from Acrasia's deadly embrace than he comes up with the bright idea of resurrecting some long-deceased warriors to fight alongside him and Kor, only for the resulting zombies to attack them instead, before being persuaded to return to their earthly resting places.

Then we have a trio of louche lizardmen hassling a poor little hobgoblin named Hurla (Michael Fontaine) until Kor steps in and rids him of his reptilian aggressors, after which a grateful Hurla promises to utilize his magic powers in assisting their quest to defeat Shurka. There is also the charmingly-named Suicide Cave through which Simon and Kor have to pass (Gulfax having wisely sat out this particular challenge by remaining with Hurla), in which they are harassed by a succession of semi-transparent howling ghosts that fly at them from all directions.

And did I mention the rainbow-engendering mermaid-like naiad, the magic-spitting winged lion (which, disappointingly, is nothing remotely as impressive as its image on its video's front cover shown above would have you believe), or the warrior cyclops who captures Kor to ensure that he keeps an earlier promise to marry the cyclops's hideous sister or else be eaten alive? Like I said earlier, the storyline is very episodic, but at least there's never a dull moment!

Thanks to the naiad, Simon, Kor, Gulfax, and Hurla finally reach the castle, just in time to prevent Shurka from forcing Aura to marry him, and Simon retrieves the lost ring from one of Shurka's minions who had just that moment spotted it in the jaws of the stone panther. There then follows the obligatory battle to the death between good wizard Simon and evil wizard Shurka, in which Shurka is obviously destroyed (this is after all a PG-rated movie aimed at a youth audience), Simon is made king, and Kor departs for adventures new elsewhere. The end. (Except that a sequel, imaginatively entitled Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II, was released in 1989, but this did not feature any of the original film's cast or crew.)

Made at a time when CGI was not so much in its infancy as still a cinematic embryo, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom relies extensively upon what in comparison were the very primitive albeit sometimes quite effective special effects available back then – with the notable exception of the winged lion, that is…

Throughout its brief appearance after having been summoned by Simon in a dream, this intriguing entity remains resolutely motionless while suspended in the sky, only its head and mouth moving slightly and its expanded wings fluttering a little. And no, regardless of what the movie video's spectacular front cover artwork depicts so vividly, nobody gets to ride on its back either – due to that winged lion artwork apparently having derived directly from the Dungeons & Dragons board-game box's artwork!

Equally ambiguous is this film's title, bearing in mind that the kingdom isn't lost – usurped yes, but not actually lost. What is lost, at least for most of the movie, is the magical ring that the two rival, regal wizards – Shurka and Simon – are both intent upon possessing. So perhaps a more apt title for it would have been Lords of the Ring – then again, I have the distinct feeling that something like this may have already been used in some capacity…

As a fantasy movie for the more youthful audience, I feel sure that Wizards of the Lost Kingdom would satisfy just as successfully as the many classic Sinbad and Thief of Baghdad-themed films have done for decades of Saturday morning TV viewing – which is why I am puzzled never once in almost 40 years since its original mid-1980s release to have seen it included in any listings for the main UK terrestrial TV channels. So unless it was hired from a video rental shop, or subsequently purchased as a sell-thru video or DVD, this means that generations of pre-internet/streaming youngsters never had the chance to see this engaging family movie, which is a great shame.

Happily, however, at least at the time of posting this present review online here at Shuker In MovieLand, I'm happy to confirm that Wizards of the Lost Kingdom can be viewed free of charge in its entirety on YouTube by clicking here. Or if you'd prefer a taster of what to expect first, please click here to view an official trailer for it.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

ALADDIN AND THE DEATH LAMP

 

Publicity poster for Aladdin and the Death Lamp (© Mario Azzopardi/Chesler-Perlmutter Productions/Vesuvius Productions/Sony Pictures Television/SyFy Channel – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

What sound does a genie playing the drums make? An awful djinn! Moving swiftly on(!), my film watch on 27 September 2022 was the 2012 SyFy fantasy/horror movie Aladdin and the Death Lamp.

Directed by Mario Azzopardi, and released as a TV movie in 2012 by SyFy Channel, Aladdin and the Death Lamp provides the viewer with an action-packed storyline, albeit one that plays very fast and loose with the familiar 1001 Nights version that we all know so well today.

Basically, it's all about the desperate search by Aladdin (played by martial arts practitioner Darren Shahlavi) and three companions (one of whom, the wise village elder/magician Khalil, is played by Eugene Clark) for a magical ring that will prevent all the djinns currently imprisoned in Hell to be released.

However, this is something that Aladdin's deadly rival, an avaricious, unscrupulous market trader named Sharira (George Ghali), is hell-bent (so to speak!) in achieving, being under the dangerous delusion that he could actually bend these immensely-powerful supernatural beings to his puny will once he'd released them. Yeah, right! (For a much more detailed coverage of the lengthy, convoluted plot, please click here.)

What is so memorable about this movie, at least for me, is that instead of including the nowadays-standardised friendly, slapstick, whimsical Robin Williamsian genie, it features a ferocious demonic djinn of the kind present in traditional Arabian lore – one that cunningly twists its bestowing of the wishes demanded of it by its lamp's owner into nightmarish responses that bring the wisher terror and death instead of joy and fulfillment.

Inevitably, therefore, a fair amount of blood/gore scenes are present too, albeit brief in tenure, making this movie by far the darkest treatment of the Aladdin saga that I have viewed. Despite its limited budget, moreover, its CGI djinn is impressively crafted as a kind of caliginous reptilian smoke entity, which works very effectively, but its CGI tiger (into which the djinn briefly transforms in order to kill evil market trader Sharira's luckless servant and absorb his soul) rather less so.

Nonetheless, Aladdin and the Death Lamp is a bold and largely successful attempt to take the Aladdin storyline down what for it is the previously-untravelled path of a horror movie, yet which is actually closer atmospherically to the original tale than are any of the other major cinematic Aladdin versions out there. Well worth a watch!

And if you'd like to pay a brief visit to the djinn-haunted realm of Aladdin and the Death Lamp, be sure to click here to view on YouTube the dramatic scene marking the djinn's ominous first appearance when Aladdin rubs its lamp and thereby inadvertently releases it.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

RED SONJA

 

Publicity poster for Red Sonja (© Richard Fleischer/Dino De Laurentiis Corporation/MGM-UA Entertainment Co/Thorn EMI Screen Corporation – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for review/educational purposes only)

My movie watch on 23 July 2022, screened on the British retro TV channel Legend (formerly the Horror Channel), was the mid-1980s swords & sorcery movie Red Sonja, which I'd somehow never got around to watching before. After finally watching it, however, I realised why.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, Red Sonja features a title character who first appeared in the Robert E. Howard fantasy short story The Shadow of the Vulture (1934) but was not incorporated into his Conan the Barbarian/Hyborian Age universe until some time later, by Marvel Comics. Released in 1985 by MGM/UA and Thorn EMI, in the opinion of many viewers and critics alike this is definitely one of those classic "so bad that it's good" films.

Red Sonja stars Danish-born former model Brigitte Nielsen (in her first screen role, aged 21) as the eponymous flame-haired Amazonesque warrior who seeks to kill the evil Queen Gedren of Berkubane (Sandahl Bergman, who was actually the first choice to play Sonja!). Gedren has slaughtered Sonja's family and devastated villages near and far in her insane quest to rule the world, driven by her theft of The Talisman. This is an all-powerful green-glowing orb, but which will destroy the world if not destroyed itself – an additional perilous task that Sonja therefore needs to accomplish.

Assisting Sonja's quest is Lord Kalidor, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger – who was signed up by Dino de Laurentiis to merely play a cameo, but his role was eventually expanded to such a degree that he ended up as co-star, with top billing! Also, his character is deemed by many to be Conan the Barbarian himself, but given a different name here in order to avoid copyright issues.

Also worth mentioning are the precocious, intensely annoying little princeling Tarn (Ernie Reyes Jr) and his much put-upon underling Falkon (Paul L. Smith). Following their rescue by Sonja and Kalidor after Gedren's destruction of Tarn's kingdom, their principal purpose is to provide some brief intervals of light/comic relief between the plenitude of battles and bloodshed.

Speaking of which: both lead stars are superb in the numerous action scenes, and are ably augmented throughout by a stirring soundtrack composed by none other than the maestro of movie music himself, Ennio Morricone, as well as spectacular costumes designed by Danilo Donati. Conversely, their dialogue, and in particular their presentation of it, imho contains about as much expression as the Speaking Clock! As for their non-action acting scenes: not so much Woden as wooden is what I might have said if this fantasy movie had been based upon traditional Norse or Teutonic mythology – but it wasn't, so I won't.

Ah well, at least there is a scene featuring a menacing spider the size of a large dog, and being duly treated as a pet by Gedren, which I assumed was a foreshadowing of arachnid aggression later on in the movie. Sadly, however, no – it never appears again, although one baddie in black attire is referred to as a black spider by one of the goodies.

True, there is a belligerent, frenetic mechanical water beast that behaves rather like a sea serpent on speed, but otherwise this fantasy film is decidedly deficient in monsters. Not one for crypto-fans, therefore, but an entertaining, highly humorous watch for me nonetheless, albeit for reasons probably not envisaged by its creators and contributors!

If you'd like to join forces with Sonja and Kalidor on their noble quest, albeit only for the length of an official Red Sonja movie trailer, be sure to click here to watch one on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

ATOR: THE FIGHTING EAGLE

 

The official UK VHS video of Ator: The Fighting Eagle (© Joe D'Amato/Filmarage/Metaxa Corporation/Thorn Video – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Last night I paid another nostalgic visit to those long-gone good old days of video rental shops and the wonderful movies that could be hired from them but which are rarely if ever screened anywhere on TV nowadays, and often have not even been given a DVD or Blu-Ray release. For the movie that I watched is a classic from that bygone age, one whose cover I so well recall seeing on countless occasions in such shops, but which I somehow never got around to renting, despite its sword-&-sorcery (S&S) genre being a favourite of mine. But after recently purchasing it in UK VHS video format from a fellow video enthusiast, I've watched it now, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie? Ator: The Fighting Eagle.

Directed and co-written by Joe D'Amato, and released in 1982, this Italian fantasy movie stars a youthful but muscular Miles O'Keeffe as the titular Ator, who in physical form is definitely cast from the classic Conan/He-Man/Deathstalker/Beastmaster mould of mystical warrior-hero. Moreover, the entire film comes across as being very much a S&S movie-by-numbers. Or, at the risk of mixing metaphors, a big-screen fantasy created by diligently following the standard cinematic recipe for such productions, the result of adding all of their principal ingredients, shaking them up and stirring them together, then screening the end product.

Thus we have the stereotypical pumped-up warrior-hero seeking to fulfill his noble, long-prophesied destiny, a glamorous and often feisty female companion whom he has rescued early on in the movie, various magical weapons to assist his endeavours, an evil ruler or despot needing to be conquered for peace and happiness to be restored to the land, a loved one abducted by said ruler/despot and therefore needing to be rescued by the hero, a shocking betrayal by a trusted ally, the hero temporarily distracted by some feminine wiles and witchcraft (literally!), sundry monsters to be slain along the way, and said ruler/despot duly vanquished in the final reel. And sure enough, in Ator: The Fighting Eagle, every one of those requirements is indeed met and ticked off on its itinerary of must-haves and must-dos.

Yet although this movie may be short on originality and imagination, I still found it enjoyable, enhanced in no small way by O'Keeffe's sympathetic portrayal of Ator as earnest and likeable rather than the arrogant, dour, overbearing figure that this particular category of fantasy character is all too often portrayed as in films such as this. Sabrina Siani as Ator's formidable Amazon sidekick Roon is always entertaining too, and I was startled to discover when reading the end-credits that Ator's trainer, the elderly, mysterious Griba, was played by none other than Edmund Purdom, hitherto known to me only as Prince Karl the handsome student prince in the 1954 movie version of Sigmund Romberg's eponymous musical, lip-synching to the glorious singing voice of Mario Lanza.

Ator's antagonist is an ancient spider-worshipping cult, fronted by a decidedly creepy arachnofetishist in the shape of its high priest, who delights in spending his entire screen time letting hairy tarantulas crawl all over him. As for the cult, it has been subjecting the land to an enduring reign of terror for the past millennium, so the scene that I was particularly looking forward to viewing was the long-awaited battle to the death between Ator and the Ancient One – a colossal cavern-dwelling spider whom the cult had worshipped since time immemorial.

Imagine my disappointment, therefore, when I discovered that the entire fight scene had been shot not with the mega-spider face-on to the camera, but instead with the camera positioned behind and above it, so that whereas we get a detailed full-face view of Ator attacking it, all that we see of the spider itself (other than a few split-seconds showing it emerging from its gargantuan cavern before battle commences) is the uppermost portion of its back and the back of its head plus a few flailing legs.  Never once do we see its face or its full form as seen from the front.

Equally, whereas various publicity posters for this film that I've seen depict Ator fighting a huge, fang-flaring serpent, such a creature was conspicuous only by its absence in the movie that I watched last night. So has the English version been abridged from the original Italian, with the snake scene deleted? I think that we should be told. By way of compensation, there is an indescribably cute black bear cub that loyally follows Ator wherever he goes, although I am intrigued as to why the fur on top of its head is pale grey.

All in all, Ator: The Fighting Eagle is a pleasant enough if fairly uneventful S&S adventure, with most of the magic & monster elements confined to the latter stages of its storyline. Regrettably, it is somewhat short on the kind of dry, tongue-in-cheek humour that often provides a welcome, diverting source of light relief in this kind of action-heavy fantasy flick (think The Barbarians or Deathstalker II, for instance). Equally, its absence of gore in battle scenes renders it decidedly innocuous and inoffensive by today's blood-drenched standards, but as someone who has always considered gore and splatter scenes to be largely unnecessary and decidedly unimaginative to the point of being downright lazy anyway, I have no problem with that.

Finally: three Ator movie sequels also exist, but I have so far only tracked down the first of them, Ator the Invincible (aka The Blade Master), released in the USA in 1984. The other two are Ator 3: Iron Warrior (1987), and Ator 4: Quest For The Mighty Sword (1990).

Meanwhile, click here to view an official trailer for Ator: The Fighting Eagle on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.