Sunday, July 5, 2015

Movie Reviews #30 - Red Sonja (1985)

Plot: (from imdb.com) A vengeful woman sets out to retrieve a magic orb from an evil queen whom she vows vengeance upon after the evil queen slain her family and her loyal warriors raped her.

Review: Red Sonja is a movie that I believe takes place in the Conan universe. Which is weird because Arnold Schwarzenegger is playing a character named Kalidor, not Conan.  Who is basically the same as Conan, just less of a dick.

            Where Conan was a brutal movie, Red Sonja is a toned down kiddie version. The kills don’t have a visceral impact. And there is an annoying kid, the death curse for any movie. I’ll never understand why filmmakers think they have to put whinny brats in their movie. It does not make it better, it just pushes away true fans of the material.

            This movie was the debut of Brigitte Nielsen and looking  back on her IMDB page, she had quite the run early in her career (Rocky IV, Cobra, Beverly Hills Cop 2) until it took a nosedive that never recovered. Her acting here… well it is what it is. Given it’s her first film and that this is a cheesy sword movie, she gets by but she’s not turning any heads. She is very wooden, maybe that’s what the character calls for but it could have been done better.

            On to the man himself, Arnold. Now I can never say anything bad about my favorite actor of all time, so I’m laying out my bias right now. He pops up when needed and kicks ass, that’s all you need from the legendary action star. Thankfully he’s in the movie, because otherwise I don’t know bad it would have been.

            What should have been the strength of the movie, swordfights, is probably the weakest point other than that damn kid. Every swing is long and telegraphed, if this were a real fight they would be killed in seconds. The story itself is also fairly dumb but if you’re a fan of the genre you may get a kick out of it. Red Sonja is not a good movie but I can see how it could get some nostalgic love from some people.

Score: 4/10

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