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Flash Gordon (1980) More at IMDbPro »

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193 comments in total

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, 20 July 2006

Author: William Bushey from United States

I know that the popular consensus has tagged this movie as campy and cheesy, but in the case of Flash Gordon, I don't think that's a bad thing at all. I was like 5 years old when I first saw this movie, so for me, it's not only a great film, it also brings me back to some of the happiest moments of my childhood when my imagination was limitless. Just listening to the soundtrack is enough to bring me back to my own personal "good ol' days," so I'll always have a soft spot for this movie in my heart. However, even viewing it as an adult, I have to say that I don't see quite as much cheese as the harsh critics see in the movie. I mean, yeah, there's that "cringe in your seat" moment when Melody Anderson side shuffles, claps her hands and cheers "Go, Flash, Go!" and her equally embarrassing, "Oh, Flash" when he saves Prince Baron from falling into the abyss, but beyond that, I think it's an awesome movie. I thought that all of the actors were very good in their respective roles, particularly Ming the Merciless, played by Max Von Sydow. He's very convincing in this role and not even remotely campy (IMHO). Klytus is also great. You gotta love his nonchalantly smooth manner of speaking. However, if I were to point out one thing that I believe made Flash Gordon the cult classic that it is today, it would HAVE to be the soundtrack. Right from the first scene when Ming starts pressing buttons that wreak havoc on the Earth, you hear the beat. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, then they hit you with that campy-as-hell "Flash! A-haaaaa!" before they break into song. The wedding march was exceptionally evil and just all of the music in between made the movie so memorable. Plus, the music helped freeze the movie permanently in 1980, which I love. If you've never seen this movie, DEFINITELY rent it and check it out. It's just a great flick.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A Glorious Film of Earth Shattering Proportions, 8 January 2007

Author: Trynyti from United Kingdom

This film is awesome on just about every level. It's camp, full of fabulously outrageous acting and is just downright silly. This is what film making ought to be about. Fun entertainment that doesn't take itself too seriously and with a soundtrack that will grab you by the throat and force you to have a good time.

The fact that the special effects are a bit wobbly, the reconciliation between Flash and Barin is hilarious and the whole macho test of man-hood by Peter Duncan looks like a scene from Robin Hood meets Pricilla Queen of the Desert, are not weaknesses but just add to this film.

Blake's 7 would not have been what it is if the sets hadn't of moved and Flash Gordon would never have worked without seventy miles of red and gold satin and lycra.

Go Flash!

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
All time classic, 2 January 2007

Author: matt-2343 (matt@lastquest.co.uk) from United Kingdom

This is with out doubt one of the best films ever made in the 1980s!! Brilliant story. Fantastic sound track. Even better script. Stands the test of time. No doubt will be remade but never will be superseded.

If you have never seen this film watch it today.

This film has its own unique style and is based on a 1930s comic book. Brian Blessed was made famous by this film. And Timothy Dalton was recognised as the future bond. Not sure what happened to Flash though seems to have been a one Hit wonder for him. Maybe he quit after this film Knowing he would never get a better role than Flash. The Savior of Earth.. Hes a miracle..

Flashes Best quote "Its a rational Transaction 1 life to save billions"

All in all this film has never had the recognition it deserves.. What do those critics know anyway??

This film will go down in history its that good..

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
What can I say! It is the perfect comic book sci-fie, 3 April 2007

Author: ozthegreatat42330 from Central City, Kentucky

After watching those Saturday serials at the movies when I was a very young kid, I was thrilled that the hokeyness and campy style that was evinced by action star Buster Crabbe, was so excellently caught in the psychedelic big budget version of Flash Gordon. To begin with is a dynamite cast with Sam Jones (a non actor but what a hunk) as Flash Gordon, football player turned into galactic hero. Melody Anderson was an acceptable Dale Arden, while Chiam Topol was the perfect Dr. Hans Zarkov. And the always incompatibly Max Von Sydow, seems to have had a ball as the deliciously evil Ming. Timothy Dalton (a future James Bond) was good also, but Brian Blessed as King of the Hawkmen was in rare form. Finally there was Peter Wyngarde who's character oozes the essence of evil with a touch of ennui. To top it all off is the sound score by the rock group Queen, with the plaintive vocals by Freddie Mercury. What here is not to like. Unless, of course, you have had your sense of humor surgically removed.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
"Trash Gordon", 9 January 2005

Author: Vegan Valkyrie XVII from United States

I found this film to be severely irritating and tacky. Flash Gordon resembles a zealous fitness fanatic as he traverses space dressed in lycra and using what appears to be some sort of treadmill as his main form of transportation. Also, the flying monkeys/humans, which I am supposing must either be a complete yet poorly done copy of those in "The Wizard of Oz" or the missing links between chimpanzees, humans and bats. Sadly, "The Wizard of Oz" despite being made nearly fifty years beforehand had higher quality special effects as concerns flying primates. The costumes are atrocious, really, I hope whoever designed them got stiffed on their salary.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
"Please don't... my mind is all I have... I've spent my whole life trying to fill it." Unbelievably camp sci-fi adventure., 28 December 2005

Author: Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Flash Gordon starts in outer space as Emperor Ming the merciless ruler of the universe (Max von Sydow) decides it would be a huge source of amusement to himself to slowly destroy Earth. With his array of sophisticated technology he causes Earthquakes, typhoons, hot hail & sends the moon out of it's orbit & speeding towards Earth. The plane New York Jets quarterback Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) & estate agent Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) are flying in crash lands in the laboratory of ex Nasa space scientist Dr. Hans Zarkow (Topol) who, at gunpoint, forces Flash & Dale into a homemade spaceship which he intends to use to fly to a planet called Mongo & save Earth. Dr. Zarkow explains that he has, for years, anticipated an alien attack on Earth & has been preparing for just such an occasion. Once on Mongo they are taken prisoner by Ming & Klytus (Peter Wyngarde) head of the secret police & sentenced to death by public execution. Helped by Ming's daughter Princess Aura (Ornella Muti) Flash decides he must find a way to escape, defeat Ming & save Earth before it's too late!

This English production was directed by Mike Hodges & is very camp, silly & hard not to laugh at but at the same time provides buckets of entertainment. The script by Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the comic strip by Alex Raymond, is hilariously bad. Some of the dialogue in this thing is priceless, it really is. The character's have all the subtly & depth of a pantomime, they are about as clichéd as you can get as well, the evil Emporer, the hero who brings everyone together & saves the day, the attractive dim female who falls for the hero, the evil character who turns good in the end, the Prince, the rebellion & a whole other host of sci-fi clichés. The story itself is just ridiculous, those wedding vows at the end are funny while despite being ruler of the entire Universe Ming & the people of Mongo decide to pinch our 'here comes the bride' wedding march music & it's convenient that everyone helpfully speaks English. The ending is made me cringe as lifelong enemies suddenly become best buddies & the Hawkmen spell out the words 'Thanks' & 'Flash' in the sky! Everything about Flash Gordon is just so campy, embarrassing to watch & badly thought out but I still had great times with it. The best way to describe Flash Gordon is as entertaining crap.

Hodges was apparently the eighth director chosen, which wouldn't exactly fill me with confidence in that there were seven director's ahead of me on a list all of whom declined. The film is an amazing visual spectacle throughout, the garish art-deco inspired production design, costumes & props by the Italian Danilo Donati are the real star of Flash Gordon. The extravagant sets & production design to the multi coloured costumes & I don't know why but I kept thinking that Ming's rocket-ships looked like a penis with wings! There is little in the way of actual excitement, the action & fight scenes are a bit uninspired.

With a budget of about $35,000,000 Flash Gordon was a well funded film so it comes as a surprise that the special effects are so rotten, the blue screen stuff & the flying Hawkmen in particular look awful, they hardly flap their wings & some not at all. I mean do you know how much they would have to flap them to even get off the ground?! Personally I hated the music by Queen & especially the Flash Gordon song but someone out there may like it. The campy Brian Blessed as Vultan is an absolute hoot to watch, Timothy Dalton as Barin seems to be taking things too seriously, Jones is awful as Gordon, Sydow as Ming overacts with the best of them while a special mention goes to Mariangela Melato as the evil General Kala whom I though was a bit of a babe until she melted into a puddle of goo.

Flash Gordon is not a film I can recommend if your looking for some exciting, serious sci-fi action. Flash Gordon is a film I can recommend if your looking for campy, big budget fun with some of the funniest dialogue in a sci-fi film ever. Mind numbingly bad but at the same time wonderfully entertaining, you decide which one is more important.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not since "Barbarella!" Not since "King Kong!" Not since..., 31 May 2000
Author: Christopher T. Chase (cchase@onebox.com) from Arlington, VA.

How to come up with the perfect metaphor for Dino DeLaurentis' remake of FLASH GORDON? Here: fix yourself a piece of french toast. Crispy, golden brown, maybe a little on the bland side, but perfectly good all by itself. Now let's add some melted butter. Okay, that's a little better. Now add some maple syrup. Pretty good, huh? Now add some powdered sugar. Now spoon on some honey. Now ladle on some strawberries. Now add some peanut butter. Now dump some chocolate syrup on it. Now--- WAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!

Get the picture? The first mistake Dino made was trying to make this all things to all people, which it ain't. Either going the serious route OR strictly camp would've made it a much better film than it actually turned out to be, but by trying to go in two different directions at once, the end result was the most schizoid kind of film imaginable, where they threw everything at the screen to see what would stick, and ended up with mostly a runny mess instead.

Another colossal blunder? The production design may have originally been conceived by the excellent Ferdinando Scarfiotti (CAT PEOPLE), but whatever his influence was is now completely drowned by the wacked-out visions of Danilo Donati, who is still stuck in the same time warp back when he designed BARBARELLA for Dino as well.

As for the performances? Max Von Sydow, Brian Blessed, Peter Wyngarde, John Hallam and Topol seemed to be the only ones to "get" that this wasn't Shakespeare, and had as much fun with Lorenzo Semple Jr.'s WAAAY-overdone material as Mike Hodges allowed them to. Sam Jones and Melody Anderson were BLONDELY, blissfully oblivious to what was going on around them, and the international contingent of Ornella Muti and Mariangela Melato were naturally, purely camp just for being there! On the other hand, poor Timothy Dalton tries to put on a game face yet again in a situation that finds him playing the straight man in inherently gay or at least uber-camp surroundings.

Ultimately, the score by Queen gets the mood just right even when the visuals don't, and Howard Blake's underscoring echoes the serial sensibility. Now with a better, surer-handed script and more charismatic leads, this could've transcended its legacy as a paragon of cinematic ineptitude and become one of the better comic strip knockoffs, ala BATMAN (the Tim Burton version.)

As a time capsule of what one could expect from the debauched and decadent '80's, it's still a hoot worth watching at least once.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The Best Worst Film Ever Made, 3 January 2008

Author: sdamackay from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"The Godfather" is one of the undisputed greatest films of all time. The acting, the script, the direction, the way Clemenza drops those sausages in the sauce, the climatic baptism/blood bath -- everything about it is brilliant. Undisputed. Now, imagine everything in a film is made to be bad -- sets, costumes, acting, lines ... Campy, 6-year-old imagination bad. That's "Flash Gordon" ... the greatest bad movie of all time. It's as brilliant, and as a religious a cinematic experience as watching "Godfather." I just saw this gem again last week on DVD, and Lord, it's spectacular. Sam Jones is as bad an actor as Al Pacino is good. But, he's brilliant here, because Flash is supposed to be a clueless hero -- a football star tossed into a sci-fi intergalactic war that he can barely comprehend. He has his name written on his shirt for crying out loud. "FLASH" in big red letters against a white T-shirt. As if he'd forget his name if he didn't look down to his chest. And darn if Sam Jones doesn't look like he hasn't a clue what the heck is going on. Max Von Sydow is the evil Ming the Merciless. Dig the name. Dig his outfit. Dig that performance, he's an evil Christ with the mind of a 12-year-old who just discovered girls and morality. Add in Topol "If I Were a Rich Man" and Grade-Z Margot Kidder clone Melody Anderson as the girlfriend-babe Dale Arden, and ... oh, it's brilliant. Queen provides the over the top music score, singing of Flash as a Christ-like Savior of the Universe. Fred Mercury was a god, wasn't he? The film works on several levels. It's what every child imagines a comic book to look like if it were brought to life. Adults can have fun, too. It's a damn fine satire of law and marriage and live for adults, and religion and Communism and ..oh, just have fun. Some folks here say turn your brain off and enjoy. No! Turn your brain on and enjoy! Flash Gordon is a dream for heterosexuals, homosexuals .. the sexual references are endless. (The seduction-telepathic "phone call" scene is funnier and more out-there than anything I've sever seen. Tim Dalton's character protests against Flash ... a bit too much, maybe) Ming is impaled on a phallic-like rocket tip. The mythology is deep -- Robin Hood, Greek gods, etc, etc. It's trash, wonderful goofy, trash and I love every frame. For every kid who collected comic books, it's heaven. For every adult who wished he still collected comic books, it's heaven. Go ahead, watch the "Godfather." I love it, it's brilliant. But it ain't fun. This is fun. This is Saturday-afternoon cinema at it's best, and it has the gumption to proudly be what "Star Wars" couldn't help but become ... junk. Wonderful, beautiful, enjoyable junk. I love this film. There hasn't been a finer comic book movie then or since.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
What is not to like about this movie?, 22 January 2005

Author: kstanley from NYC

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Delightful, wonderful, sexy cheese. Gorgeous costumes, fantastic Queen soundtrack, glorious comic book-style cinematography.

This is such a fun movie to watch; I liked it the first time I saw it back in 1980, and I still like it 25 years later.

The dialogue is exceedingly silly, but that is part of the charm--hearing Max von Sydow sneering, "Pathetic Earthlings," or Brian Blessed, schlocking through lines like, "Onward my brave Hawkmen! Let this be known forever as Flash Gordon's Day!" Bahahahahaa! Excellent! And the soundtrack is done by QUEEN! Really, that would be enough to get me to watch this. And when you add in the lushly colored sets and ultra-fab costumes, this film is a gem.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
What went wrong?, 2 September 1999

Author: chez-3 from Chicago

After all these years it still amazes me how big a blunder this film is. The Buster Crabbe serials of the 30's were classics compared to this bust. Why did they camp it up? Why did the filmmakers forget that one of the pleasures of the serial was the cheap sets and effects? It's a big mistake trying to make this film funny but then spending millions in special effects that looked cheap but weren't meant to. Why not make it look cheap in a campy style? Have fun with it. Either do it one way or the other.

The biggest problem with the film is the casting of the two leads. Sam J Jones and Melody Anderson as Flash and Dale Arden are both just awful. With all the money spent couldn't they have gotten two leads who could act? The only two performances worth noting are Topol as Dr. Zarkoff and Max Von Sydow, inspired casting, as Ming the Mercilles. Even the score by Queen is overdone. This film is a mess.

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