Flash Gordon
FLASH GORDONÂ (PG)
D: Michael Hodges
EMI/Famous/Starling (Dino de Laurentiis)
UK/Netherlands/USA 🇬🇧 🇳🇱 🇺🇸 1980
115 mins
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Science Fiction/Fantasy/Adventure
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W: Lorenzo Semple, Jr. [based on characters created by
Alex Raymond]
DP: Gilbert Taylor
Ed: Malcolm Cooke
Mus:Â QueenÂ
PD:Â Danilo Donati
Sam J. Jones (Flash Gordon), Melody Anderson (Dale Arden),
Topol (Dr. Hans Zarkov), Max Von Sydow (Emperor Ming the Merciless), Timothy Dalton (Prince Barin), Brian Blessed (Prince Vultan)
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Cheese and Queen. What more could you want?
The adventures of the title character in a sci-fi battle
between good & evil. When their aircraft is abducted by alien forces and a despotic emperor who plans to rule the Galaxy, Flash and his buddies only have 24 hours to save the
Earth.
If this film took itself seriously, it would be absolutely
awful. The acting is absolutely atrocious, the visual effects, set designs and costumes have dated incredibly badly since 1980 and the soundtrack can only be described as Freddie Mercury's
wet dream, but it's absolutely impossible to take this film seriously.
It's good clean, science fiction matinee stuff with a
cheeky tongue-in-cheek style. Clearly produced to cash-in on the success of Star Wars and the rise of other films in the same genre around the same period.
It has to be deemed as a classic, although not necessarily
for all the right reasons. Death to Ming!!!
7/10
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