When I was a teenager in Sri Lanka, there seemed to be a never-ending supply of adventure films involving bare-chested muscular heroes (usually played by body builder Steve Reeves) portraying mythic characters fighting evildoers and monsters. The films had titles like Goliath and the Barbarians, Ursus, Hercules, Hercules Unchained, and Hercules and the Three Bears (ok, I made the last one up). These films were made in Italy and the actors’ lines were badly dubbed into English. The films were low-budget and cheesy, and although they and made for some campy fun, one quickly grew tired of them.
By the time Arnold Schwarzenegger came along, I had no desire whatsoever to revisit that genre and in fact have not seen a single film of his. I will not see the current remake of Conan the Barbarian either, but I found Stephen Whitty’s review to be hilarious.
That’s fair in some ways. But he has been involved in some excellent science fiction. Pulpy science fiction, but science fiction, nonetheless. If you have any interest in that sub-genre at all, I’d recommend the following:
Terminator 1 & 2 — I’m pretending the others never happened.
Predator — Definitely a classic. Well worth watching.
Total Recall — I will admit, it is a bit hokey at times, though. Still entertaining.
The Running Man — A bit heavy-handed (and with cheesy one-liners to boot) but has something to say about the lengths we go to for entertainment.
Those are pretty much listed in the order you should watch them, if you’re feeling so inclined. Honestly, you could leave off the last two completely and not lose anything.
One of the most interesting and still relevant of the 1980s “swords and sorcery” movies is Dragonslayer. It has an interesting political and social message that applies to many situations, so the movie never seems dated.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082288/
The hero is a young wizard’s apprentice, played by a young Peter McNicol (Ally McBeal, Numbers) in a land run by a corrupt king. The king made a deal with a dragon, to sacrifice the occasional young virgin to spare the land, but he hypocritically prevented his own daughter from being entered in the “lottery” to determine with virgin got eaten. One young virgin was raised and dressed as a boy by her blacksmith father to protect her, and she becomes the apprentice’s ally (and eventual girlfriend) in the hunt to slay the dragon.
The wizard and apprentice sought to kill the dragon, and the king imprisons the apprentice after (so we think at first) the wizard is dead. It is only when the king’s daughter rigs the lottery so she will be the one eaten that the king relents and lets the apprentice try to kill the dragon. Even in the corrupt government, some people will stand against what they benefit from.
In the end, the dragon is slain, but the king marches up with his entourage, sticks a sword into the dead beast and declares himself “dragonslayer”. The country continues to suffer under his rule, the hero gets no reward (except for the girl), and a lie will be told instead of the truth. What else is new, now or in 1981?
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Thanks! I’ll check out Dragonslayer.
Mystery Science Theater skewers “Hercules and the Moon Men.” If you like the humor of the MST variety, I’d encourage you to check out this movie. (I saw it on Netflix.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_vs._the_Moon_Men#MST3K