Thanks for checking out our Forgotten Fridays feature. This is a feature to review some older films that maybe you have forgotten about or maybe never got around to seeing that we just want to share. They may not be old, maybe not forgotten, but they are not new. Just fun to share.
Today’s review is Red Sonja
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Directed by: Richard Fleischer
Staring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brigitte Nielsen, Ernie Reyes Jr., Paul L. Smith
Released: July 3, 1985
THE GENERAL IDEA
After her family is murdered a young woman named Red Sonja becomes a master of the sword and seeks revenge on the evil queen responsible for the mayhem that has befallen her. Also, it seems the queen has stolen a powerful, carefully guarded, glowing orb right before it was meant to be destroyed, one that has powers of its’ own, allowing for the possessor to control elemental forces and call down storms and earthquakes, if they so wish. Kalidor, one of the individuals in place to oversee the destruction of the orb, joins forces with Red Sonja, as their paths may differ, but they ultimately lead to the same place. An impudent, young prince named Tarn and his guard/manservant Falkon, whose kingdom was unceremoniously wiped out by Gerden as a test for her newfound powers, soon joins them.
THE GOOD
This is 80s action just like it was meant to be seen. Simple plot, poor acting, exaggerated characters and a whole lot of kickassery. Red Sonja was a character originally introduced in Conan the Barbarian #23 for Marvel Comics. The inclusion of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan like Lord Kalidor is an intentional tribute casting. The Evil Queen is played by Sandahl Bergman (who was originally offered the role of Sonja) who played the theif Valeria, a love interest to Conan in those films.
Arnie is great in this, and Red Sonja herself is creepy attractive as the very scary Brigitte Nielsen (who was married to Sylvester Stallone after appearing in this and Rocky 4) but the comedy relief comes from the young cocky Prince Tarn who at the tender age of 8 is exterting his authority and finds himself continually ignored by our heroes. Ernie Reyes Jr plays the young Prince who later had a number of roles in martial arts action films like the Ninja Turtles 2 and more recently as a stuntman on Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Paul L. Smith who plays Tarn’s guardian appears again as the Arch Duke in Maverick.
Its a great fun film with action, campy charm and adventure.
THE BAD
This is hokey as hell. If you have to take every film too serious this will eat you alive. The action is great, but the characters themselves are hokey. The over acting is part of the charm of the film but it can grate on you if you let those things bother you. Its not a “great” film, but it sure is fun.
OVERALL
Red Sonja is a WARRIOR woman, and can actually pick up the sword she is carrying. With the proposed remake staring Rose McGowan, my biggest problem is that the star might weigh about twice as much as that sword. Rose will make a tasty pinup in the traditional scale mail bikini, but I just can’t buy her as a barbaric sword weilding warrior.
If you want to catch this film, Spike TV is offering it this weekend.
I am going to introduce a new rating system for my Forgotten Fridays picks.
Since all of these Forgotten Friday reviews are going to be what I would already give a high rating to, I had a Tv, Rent or Buy scale going on, but it would seem that an overwhelming majority of my picks get a BUY rating.
So with every Forgotten Friday you see from now on, you get to rate your anticipation for yourself!
TV – If you are at least a little curious, catch it if it comes on TV.
Rent – If it is something you have heard of and forgotten, or just remember enjoying this as much as I did once upon a time, go rent it.
Buy – But if you are like me, and you agree with my review you should go buy it. If its featured here, I already have.
My girlfriend is a red head and was so excited to finally see this movie. She loves red-headed heroines with moxie. April O’neil, Jean Gray, Jessica Rabbit, Batgirl, etc. I finally bought a copy bundled with “Raw Deal” for $5 so we could watch together…
Couldn’t finish it. I don’t mind the cheesy sets and action, but its the DULL conversations and comic relief that are just interminable.
Otherwise it definately falls into the ‘so bad its good’ category, as long as you get up to get a drink and make a sandwich during the boring bits. Still enjoyed it more than Krull, which I totally remember being better than it is…
I have to admit, I have never seen this movie. I have had chances, but I always skipped it. I heard it was bad (and sometimes, I watch stuff just to “see” how bad it really is, only to find out it isn’t as painful as I thought, (with the exception of, say, ‘Howard The Duck’) and for the life of me, I don’t know why I skipped Red Sonja. I always liked dancer-actress Sandhal Bergman.
As far as cheese fests go, hell, I made it through Sheena. (haven’t we all?)
One of these days, someone’s gonna have to handcuff me to the chair, force feed me cheese snacks to watch this.
My gosh.. I love this movie. I watch this movie like a gazillion times when I was a kid. Love it. Sadly, most of my frens in the same age group havent watch this. It’s really coool back then. I still enjoy watching it now. Bring back lots of childhood memories. Thanks for reviewing it. Forgotten Friday is one helluva cool section.
anyone pumped about the new one?
Yep, I am.
Not really, unless they can cast an unknown actress who naturally look like Red Sonja, might be unearth a gem (like Wolverine or original Superman). I’m not hating Rose, on the contrary… but she seems not the right choice for Red Sonja.
Sho-Nuff!
Its kind of interesting that Space decided to show this movie tomorrow. Did you have anything to do with it?
I wish I had that kind of power! lol
I thought I saw the commercial for it on Spike, but now that you mention it, it might have been Space in Canada.
It was that commercial that brought the film to mind.
I just watched it a few weeks ago .. seriously .. loved it as a kid and love it now!
and dont forget about the soundtrack .. Ennio Morricone! I mean wow!
Watched this movie over 100 times as a kid. So awesome.
I know right???
I admit watching it now its a heaping pile of cheese and very campy. But its awesome for shamelessly doing it and still not looking retarded.
I feel the same as you gentlemen do, at the time it was released I loved it. I can’t say it has aged well, but I catch myself stopping on it when its playing on national tv.
I would give it your “tv” rating for sure.
Ernie Reyes Jr. wasn’t so bad as a martial artist either…weird he didn’t get bigger. You should do The Last Dragon for forgotten friday! Wasn’t he in that too as a kid? A black kung fu ninja named Bruce LeeRoy is automatic gold!
OH!!! and another shit-tastic gem for you to consider…Pulse with Joey Lawrence about the house with haywire electricity that kills people! So bad! We do a bad movie night at my house on mondays and we watched that a while back…so fun with a bunch of drunk people!
back in the days before MMA was on the scene all the real martial artists in the bay area would make fun of ernies dads studio’s cause they had crap like camo belts and it was all hollywood shit they did….u might see a few of there good students at tourney’s but all they were good at was looking flashy…funny how that was cool back in like 1990 and now its the opposite way around and now MMA training is big and the karate shops across america are dying..hey thats what u get when u comercialize something….i mean look at cung le…he makes movies and has the same enthusiasm as any other stuntman/actor yet he trains hard for actual fighting…sad thing is ernie and his dad market his crap as self defense…yet not one of there students can defend themselves….but hey they look good in “SURF NINJA’S”! HAHAHAA
i loved her in this movie…to bad she sux in real life now haha…this movie was pure awesomeness!
Brigitte was smokin’ in this.
now she’s makin’ out w/ Flava-Flav.
times change huh?