Wednesday, November 8, 2023

ONCE CONSIDERED "EPIC" IS NOW JUST A TERRIBLE "B-FILM"

🎥🎞️Movie Review ðŸŽž️🎥- THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER [1982] - [R] - Amazon Prime - Directed Albert Pyun. Written by Albert Pyun, Tom Karnowski, John V. Stuckmeyer. Starring Lee Horsely, Kathleen Beller, Simon MacCorkindale, George Maharis, and Richard Lynch. Budget $4Million.

In ancient times, a shady mercenary solider [Prince Talon played by Horsely] witnesses the death of his mother by the hands of an evil man [Cromwell played by Lynch]  who is hell bent on becoming king. Unbeknown to the mercenary soldier, Cromwell has gone as far as to summon a demon sorcerer to assist him on his quest to rule; who he later betrays and leaves for dead. Princess Alana [Beller] and her brother are captured by Cromwell. Talon is hired to find Alana's imprisoned brother; which is a deed that leads Talon to uncover that he is the rightful air to the kingdom; but he has to deal with Cromwell and the demon that is still alive and planning to usurp Cromwell's reign on the land.

THE GOOD - For being an 1980's film production, the casting was above  impressive for the time. The special effects were entirely practical effects with little to no green screen. Some of the weaponry - like the mystical triple edged sword - was designed with mystical foresight to expand the imagination of what the writers though would bring more of a marvel of wizardry to the production.

THE BAD - The cinematography and lighting is atrocious! The splendor of over acting and improvised screenplay was dull, not forgetting to mention that the choreographed fight scenes were beyond deplorable, so much so, that the director added some slow motion sequences that were redundant and only added to the production to try and give the film an epic look, plus add more screen run time.

POST MORTEM - In my youth, my friend and I sneaked into the newly cinema theater to watch this - what we thought - was a masterpiece, second only to CONAN THE BARBARIAN [1982] which would be released a month later. I just remember the film being more dramatic and spine tingling back in the day. The film since then has become an "underground" cult phenom and is considered one of the best fantasy films of that generation, but I beg to differ.  I could barely make it through the film today. One BIG surprise was seeing Peter Breck [Nick Barkley from THE BIG VALLEY (1965)] making one of his final film debuts!

⭐️⭐️💫 [2.5 of 5 Stars]

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