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Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) More at IMDbPro »

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35 comments in total

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16 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Ray Harryhausen at his very best, 13 February 2005

Author: wvcruffler from United States

When I saw this in the theater as a 7 or 8 year old kid, I cried when it finished. It was by far the most captivating movie I had ever seen. I liked it better than Star Wars. The unbelievable stop-motion effects of Harryhausen still look great, even when compared to CGI. Things have not improved much. And Jane Seymore in the belly-dancer outfit! Good Lord! You must see this movie to believe it! The gold minotaur rowing the boat and the fight between the troglodyte and the saber-toothed tiger at the end stand out in my mind so strongly when I think of this movie.Get a copy of this movie, Jason and the Argonauts, and then Clash of the Titans and you have a fantastic Saturday afternoon of movie watching.

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18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
DVD release is a gem for Harryhausen fans, 29 December 2001

Author: midnightrane from Deep South

Okay, so the film isn't a masterpiece for anyone involved, but the DVD is worth the price for Harryhausen fans. I won't reiterate a fairly lame plot but to say that a prince is morphed into a baboon and Sinbad must find a way to correct this untimely development in order to repay a friend and win the hand of the lovely Jane Seymour. All in all, the film turns out to be rather entertaining once Patrick Troughton makes it on-screen to flesh-out the dialogue. Overshadowing the movie's multiple shortcomings, however, is the always inspiring stop-motion work of Ray Harryhausen. The Trog and sabre-tooth are two fine creations and while we don't see anything on par with the 7 skeletons in "Jason & the Argonauts" or Medusa from "Clash of the Titans" there are some great moments with other creatures. While to be treasured as one of Harryhausen's last films the DVD also includes the added bonus of "The Ray Harryhausen Chronicles", an in-depth documentary narrated by Leonard Nimoy featuring a bio and interviews with today's FX masters. This and other features combine to make an otherwise average fantasy/adventure film worth a look--if you're a Harryhausen fan and you've got a DVD player. For all the extra features, I'll give the DVD a 6/10.

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17 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
For children when wonder and Imagination were still in vogue!, 28 June 2003

Author: lambiepie-2 from Los Angeles, CA

(Minor Spoilers)

Let's be honest and a tad realistic about this film, shall we?

By TODAY'S standards, this is a "cheesy" kinda film compared to what technology we've got. And I think at the time of this release we had gotten "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Wars" so our expectation levels were running higher for "special effects" and "whimsy" than this.

But I still can get entertainment out of this film.

How?

By remembering how old I was when I saw it and WHOM I was with when I saw it. My family.

I was a child. This film wasn't in my all time top ten, but it was...fun. It was one of those movies local channels threw on Sunday afternoon before or after a televised ball game..or when a ball game was rained out. Come on, admit it..you remember!

And that's the point. This film's special effects were nice..not spectacular..not even up to Ray Harryhausen's standards, but the Harryhausen mark was there which made it entertaining (Admit it, you LOVED the walrus scene!! How 'bout that Cyclops?!?! As a child this was all good! You remember!!).

For very young girls, this Sinbad was REALLY nice to look at back then. For the very young guys, so was Miss Jane Seymour and Miss Taryn Power. Then there was the story which was kinda fun, the adventure which was kinda whimsical and the happy ending where the bad guys got theirs'.

This was done at a time of assuming children would love this kinda stuff. Back then, more would have. Now, most children don't even think "Spy Kids" can give them a buzz.

This movie is about childhood and remembering what it was like to have an imagination and watch a story unfold for nothing but the sheer enjoyment of it...the fun of eating "Good 'n' Plenty", "Snowcaps", "Malted Milk Balls" and Popcorn without thinking about calorie content to make this even more fun to watch...and the "eye candy" of Wayne, Seymour and Power help a so-so story that's really better than a lot of stuff I've seen today that they charge ya $10 a ticket for! Parents may not have liked it as much as the children but that too is part of the fun!

Have a heart when watching this. Watch this as a "fun" romp....as remembering when families watched shows together (..or in my case my dad mumbling under his breath about how the game was due on and he had to sit through this 'crap' first!), the pre-teen tingles of watching a handsome Wayne, young Seymour and/or Power (...ya know...before having breast implants and weighing 95 pounds was mandatory in Hollywood for women to do this kind of film work?!?) and telling your parents you were REALLY interested in the story...really.

Maybe I've got a more "nostalgic" view about this film..its because I'm not looking for academy award winning material with this kind of film, but it does its job of...entertaining...and if you have children and want them to be children for a tad longer, this may be the film fare for them. Or just for you, if you want to curl up with some popcorn and remember "the good old movie fluff days" where special effects were done by hand and stop motion photography by the "grand-daddy" of the genre and a Sinbad movie where Sinbad actually looked like you might imagined him to look like back then and evil characters who were evil and got theirs....pretty much simplified.

Open your mind and when you have a moment...enjoy. Don't take it seriously just sit back... watch...and HAVE FUN..with your children, as a family.

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12 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
A weak Sinbad, but still a first-rate tale., 30 October 1999
Author: G.Spider

A film with animation by Ray Harryhausen. It's a pity he couldn't have animated Patrick Wayne, who's bland performance means he comes across as the least interesting Sinbad. It is Patrick Troughton's excellently enigmatic Melanthius and Margaret Whiting's icy Zenobia who are the real stars of this show.

Sinbad travels to find a way to break the spell which has turned a prince into a baboon, but Zenobia, who has plans to ensure her son is crowned king in the prince's place, calls upon the help of various mythical creatures. The minotaur is by far the best of these and ought to have faced Sinbad and his crew rather than just being crushed in an ignoble exit. Other memorable creatures include a giant walrus, insectoid-faced demons and a sabre-toothed cat. Though the central character of the title is somewhat lacking, this is still first-rate entertainment and genuine escapism, two things somewhat lacking in more recent films.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent third and final Sinbad movie from Ray Harryhausen, 9 February 2005

Author: Chris Gaskin from Derby, England

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger was the third and final Sinbad movie with Ray Harryhausen creatures.

In this one, a prince is turned into a stop-motion baboon and Sinbad and crew go on an expedition to Ademaspai to restore him back to human form. They face plenty of dangers on the way including several giant creatures, some of them prehistoric (more on those later). He is being followed by an evil witch with magic powers, Zenobia, along with her son and a stop-motion metal creature, Minoton. On one occasion, she turns herself into a seagull to spy on Sinbad and on return to her ship as she transforms back, she is left with a webbed foot as she has ran out of potion. She is defeated at the end in the form of a Sabre-toothed Tiger and the prince is restored back to human form.

Now to those creatures: we start with a trio of ghouls and other creatures include a giant wasp, a giant walrus, a Troglodite and the above mentioned Sabre-toothed tiger. The other two stop-motion creatures, Minoton and the baboon appear throughout the movie. All of them look impressive, thanks to Ray Harryhausen.

Sinbad is played well by the Duke's son Patrick Wayne (The People That Time Forgot) and the rest of the cast includes Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton, Bond girl Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die), Taryn Power, Margaret Whiting as Zenobi and Nadim Sawalha.

Though not as good as the first Sinbad movie, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, I still enjoyed watching this one. Excellent.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Really cheesy but lots of fun, 7 February 1999
Author: Marta from United States

This is one of my guilty pleasures; everyone makes fun of me because I love this movie. Harry Hausen has been panned over this film, but I think he did a fantastic job. It's inventive and eye-catching.

Patrick Wayne is strong-jawed and stalwart as Sinbad, but Jane Seymour, as the princess, obviously hadn't paid for any acting lessons yet when she made this film. She's really bad in it, but great-looking. She beat Bo Derek by 4 years in starting the cornrow hairstyle. The biggest hoot in the movie is Margaret Whiting as the evil Queen. She's got an accent that won't quit; and she's a really good actress, which surprised me. Even when she turns herself into a seagull.

Don't expect rocket science when you watch this; just expect to be entertained.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A fun 70's flick!, 14 November 2004
Author: daria84 from Ecuador

I've seen this movie probably about over 10 times when I was little, but now I can't find it and I really want to watch it again!

This movie is plain entertaining, about one of many adventures that Simbad had, including a witch that practices black magic, a terrible curse, an old wise man with lots of answers for lots of questions and even a golden bull, Zenobia's slave. cool huh?

Anyways the plot is fun, you know how's going to end but that doesn't ruin the fun. The Actors are good, not Oscar winners but they do their job and do it well. Script? it's OK, it has some fun lines, most of all from Zenobia.

Bottom line: if I find this movie, I'll buy it in a heart-beat!

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Far-Out Tale Involving Sinbad, 29 June 2003
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

Okay, the story for this film, already stated to some length, is obviously weak. A prince turned into a chess-playing baboon is taken to the Artic to go to some mystical land, Hyperbalia or something like that, so that he can resume his former shape. The legend basis of this film is almost non-existent as we see a pyramid at the the northern-most part of the world that is guarded by an ice-covered sabre-tooth tiger. Hmmm...okay, Ill buy. In the process of this "world", we see images of Egyptian, Indian, and even Greek deities abounding throughout. Boy, what travelers all these folks were! Story notwithstanding. This film is fun if not ridiculous. Patrick Wayne easily makes the weakest and least-interesting Sinbad. An in-grown toe nail oozes more passion. The female leads are "fleshed" out with Jane Seymour and Taryn Power(daughter of Tyronne Power). Seymour has moments that show her ability to act; Power has no such moments. The real plusses come from supporting players Patrick Troughton( a former Dr. Who) and Margaret Whiting as the evil Zenobia, foil to Sinbad and his baboon-changing-back-to-prince plans. Troughton plays Melanthius, the wisest man on earth, yet makes one inept, incredibly stupid mistake after another when the ship is visited by Zenobia ala gull. Watch and see if his actions make any sense to you. Troughton CAN act though and brings some much needed life to the human cast of the film. The real joy of the cast is Whiting playing this thickly-accented evil persona chewing up as much scenery as she can. Watching her hobble about and use her eyes was a real hoot! But like any other Harryhausen film, the "real" cast takes a backseat to the animated ones. The film definitely has a weaker array of creatures for a Harryhausen film, and no one stand-out creature, but there are some good ones like the gold Miniton(minitour), the sabre-toothed tiger, and the Trogolyte, a creature that exudes a great deal of emotion for a figure such as this. The giant walrus was a bit lame as were the creatures created out of flames by Zenobia in the beginning of the film. Harryhausen and Producer Charles Schneer still deliver some good action and effects amidst the very, very weak script(co-written by Harryhausen), the mediocre direction of Sam Wanamaker, and the listless performance of Patrick Wayne.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Sinbad: Third time's a harm. The first real blunder of Dynamation!, 15 July 2006

Author: Death_to_Pan_and_Scan from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The third film is the weakest of the Sinbad trilogy. The trailers should've said "Starring John Wayne's son and Tyrone Powers' daughter!", I wasn't impressed by that casting. Personally, I thought Jane Seymour was one of the casting highlights in this flawed fantasy film. "Eye of the Tiger" not a bad film, but it is also not the great film that some people want to remember it as from their childhood.

I saw these Sinbad films as a child and re-watched them this week. Let's face it; this was the weakest of the 3 Sinbad films and of the 5 films in that Harryhausen boxset. The IMDb voters even seem to agree with me on this. Luckily for us, Ray Harryhausen, special effects genius and one-man workforce, followed this film up with "Clash of the Titans" before retiring thereby leaving the film world on a high note instead of this uncharacteristic stumble. This might have had 7 times the budget of the first Sinbad film (7th Voyage), but it was a big letdown to me after watching much better, more entertaining Sinbad films. If I seem harsh in this review, it is because I have recently re-watched several of Ray Harryhausen's films and some interviews and documentaries in said box set about his work. I know the magic his genius is capable of and I am grading this film against his other films. Some people on IMDb are whining because it came out around the same time as "Close Encounters" and "Star Wars". The real problem isn't that movie visual effects had moved forward, so much as that the work here isn't as impressive as it is in previous Harryhausen films.

The plot was basically a weak mirror of the 7th Voyage plot (gotta help restore a friend to normal, go to some crazy island to obtain magical help and faceoff against a purveyor of the dark arts). Actually all 3 Sinbad films can be vaguely described that way. The script makes some weak/lame turns to get to its destination.

While a friend didn't like Sinbad 'having an afro', I didn't mind Patrick Wayne's look as much as his uninspired acting. He never sold us on the Dynamation effects like Kerwin Matthews or John Philip Law (of Danger Diabolik fame).

THE CREATURES. I am 'grading on a curve' against Harryhause's capabilities from other films. His work here is good (and above what anyone else save possibly Willis O'Brien could do with similar tools), but definitely has been better in his previous efforts. -Golden Minotaur was very cool, but never properly utilized in this film. -bug-eyed demons were unimpressive creations. -sabretooth was fun, but looked more like a stuffed toy than past Harryhausen creations. -Trogolodyte was good. There were also: a baboon, a giant walrus and an overgrown bee. There isn't anything here to compare to his greatest creations: the Cyclops vs. Dragon, the Roc, 6-armed swordfighting Kali, 7 skeletons (in Argonauts), Griffon vs. Centaur, Pegasus, Medusa, etc. He doesn't top himself in this film, which was a letdown for me after seeing his better films.

I also felt that some of the travelling matte work had footage that to my eye didn't quite match up and distracted from the usual wonder of 'Dynamation' I've come to expect. Viewing this in my childhood I probably overlooked this, as an adult I cannot.

The film suffers from an abundance of what I call 'IDIOT PLOT MOMENTS', the likes of which one would expect from a slasher film. This happens too often in entertainment (especially in genre films and TV) when the writers need to get the plot from point A to point B and are either too lazy or lack creativity to get there properly or they are attempting something extremely unlikely for the characters and don't care about undermining the credibility or reality of the world they are creating. There were far too many moments where I wanted to scream at the screen while watching.

**SPOILER WARNING** SUMMATION OF 'IDIOT PLOT POINTS'

The Minotaur is a great mythology creature and could've been a great opponent for an exciting battle with Sinbad's crew, but was totally wasted here. What does he really do? He rows a boat, spears a drowning man and then proves his lack of sentience by pulling a large brick onto himself thereby crushing himself to death. Lame.

Melanthius the supposedly wise sage acts cluelessly so the plot can proceed where the writers want. He captures the witch (already established as highly dangerous and has turned Sinbad's friend into a baboon) and promptly evacuates the room of all other people (who could possibly stop him from his forthcoming blundering). He then reveals the map and key to the enemy and (inadvertently?) tells her where they are headed. Then, after taunting her with a dangerous bee, he gives the bee some of her potentially 'enlarging' potion so that it can become a danger to the crew and the witch can be afforded an escape and further plague the party.

After not running the treacherous witch through with a spear, the party inexplicably forgets to keep a close eye on Zenobia after the death of her worthless son while all watching starry-eyed as the Prince transforms back. Lo and behold Zenobia uses this oversight to possess the frozen sabretooth and attempt her vengeance. This begins the sabretooth vs. Trog battle. I am still annoyed by Sinbad's crew not taking the opportunity to slash the monsters legs thereby crippling its fighting abilities even if it wouldn't seem sporting in a G rated film (not that it stopped Koura from stabbing the Griffon's hindquarters to cripple it in Golden Voyage).

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Harryhausen creations carry the day., 19 September 2001
Author: Bynovekka1 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Tip your hat to Ray Harryhausen. His stop motion animation monsters constantly distract viewers from the worst plots and the most awful acting performances within his films. In his third and final Sinbad outing, we again find bad acting personified in the form of Patrick Wayne in the title role. He's stiff as the perverbial board. But unlike John Philip Law in 'Golden voyage of Sinbad' he at least tries hard. And if nothing else, he looks the part.

The rest of the cast is somewhat better. A drop dead gorgeous princess. A aged greek scientist. His attractive daughter. An evil sorceress Queen and her just as evil son.

"Possible Spoilers!!!"

The plot....such as it is.....consists of the following; The aforementioned evil queen makes a monkey out of a soon to be crowded prince.....literally!!! In fact the poor guys been transformed into a baboon to prevent him from taking the throne as king. Hence the evil queen will be the big cheese in the kingdom.

The prince's ultra hot sister seeks a way to save him. To this end she enlists the aid of her soon to be hubby, the square jawed sea captain......Sinbad.

Sinbad informs his intended that the only one capable of helping her is the aformentioned aged greek scientist. The catch is he lives on a far off island and the prince must take the throne by a certain time or the evil queen's son.......who like any good son does everything mama tells him.......will become the new king.

Sinbad and crew set sail to the aged greeks isle. The evil queen pursues. Along the way both party's meet up with a number of impressively constructed Harryhausen visual whammys. Including: Bug-eyed sword wielding ghouls. A metal minator. A giant wasp. A giant stone aged primative. A monstrously large walrus. And a deadly sabertoothed tiger.

It is these non-living charactors that steal the show. But with Harryhausen pulling the strings we the audience would expect nothing less.

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