Minotaur (2006)

Long ago in the Iron Age, a shadow loomed over a lonely village. For generations, the village youths are stolen from their families and delivered as sacrifice to a mythical beast - the ... See full summary »

Director:

Jonathan English

Writers:

Nick Green, Stephen McDool

Stars:

Tom Hardy, Michelle Van Der Water, Tony Todd

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hardy	...	Theo
Michelle Van Der Water	...	Raphaella
Tony Todd	...	Deucalion
Lex Shrapnel	...	Tyro
Jonathan Readwin	...	Danu
Rutger Hauer	...	Cyrnan
Maimie McCoy	...	Morna
Lucy Brown	...	Didi
James Bradshaw	...	Ziko
Fiona Maclaine	...	Vena
Claire Murphy	...	Nan
Ingrid Pitt	...	The Leper
Ciaran Murtagh	...	Turag
Angela Furtado	...	Raphaella's Handmaiden
Donata Janietz	...	Ffion

Storyline

Long ago in the Iron Age, a shadow loomed over a lonely village. For generations, the village youths are stolen from their families and delivered as sacrifice to a mythical beast - the Minotaur that dwells beneath a great palace. Theo, haunted by the loss of his love in an earlier sacrifice is convinced that the beast isn't real, and that his girl still lives as a slave within the palace. His father, Cyrnan, the village leader, tries to reason with Theo not to go, but Theo is driven by blind rage. He devises a plan and is taken with the other youths who are dragged screaming from their families.

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Plot Keywords:

minotaur | queen | bull | empire | sword and sorcery | 

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Taglines:

In His Maze, All Paths Lead To The Grave.

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and some nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Sci Fi Channel

Country:

UK Luxembourg Germany France Spain Italy USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 May 2006 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Minotauro

Filming Locations:

Carousel Picture Company, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

First Look International, Lions Gate Entertainment, Meltemi Entertainment

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tom Hardy's first leading role.

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Goofs

In many scenes, especially the scene where Tyro and Didi climb up the wall, there is clearly a steel-wire lifting the actors up, when they are supposed to be climbing by themselves.

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Quotes

Deucalion: Inhale the sweetness!
[Gives the Queen the cattle-skull and lets her breathe into it]

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Connections

Referenced in Unikal'noe pozdravlenie (2014)

User Reviews

Nothing brilliant but surprisingly one of SyFy's more tolerable movies

Minotaur was not a brilliant movie. And in all honesty, I wasn't expecting it to be, in fact considering SyFY'S reputation I was expecting much worse. There are problems, but to my surprise Minotaur was one of SyFy's more tolerable movies. The film surprisingly looks great, unlike other SyFy movies you can actually see and somewhat understand what's going on, the photography is not too slipshod, a decent job is done to make the setting believable and the scenery is really quite stunning. The music is another improvement, not forgettable or sluggish but often well-orchestrated with a couple of rousing moments. The main female character is also beautiful and doesn't fall into the trap of being too vapid, and while I think Tom Hardy knew the script was bad and overdid it sometimes there is an element of charisma about it that has been sorely lacking in other fantasy/adventure SyFy movies. The minotaur is rather unconvincing, with the quality coming across as choppy computer-game-ish, but I have seen far worse effects before. Besides the minotaur is quite menacing, again another improvement on other SyFy monsters. Minotaur also has a lot of faults, starting with the insipid dialogue and clichéd and personality-less(generally) characters and ending with a rather predictable and at times ridiculous story that takes time to get going in some of the cave/labyrinth sequences and Tony Todd(who was so brilliant in Candyman) overacting embarrassingly, like Danny Glover in Age of the Dragons and (I know this next example isn't SyFy but still) Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons he chews the scenery to pieces. Overall, not a brilliant movie and has a lot wrong with it but tolerable, compared to other things that SyFy have done. 5/10 Bethany Cox