Plot
A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyrant, Ming the Merciless, to save Earth.
Release Year: 1980
Rating: 6.2/10 (18,594 voted)
Critic's Score: 63/100
Director:
Mike Hodges
Stars: Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow
Storyline In this update of the 1930s comic strip, Flash Gordon is a football hero who is skyjacked aboard Dr. Hans Zarkov's rocketship along with beautiful Dale Arden. The threesome are drawn into the influence of the planet Mongo, controlled by Ming the Merciless. Ming has been testing the Earth with unnatural disasters, and deeming it a threat to his rule, he plans to destroy it. He also intends to take Dale as his concubine. Flash must avoid the amorous attentions of Ming's daughter and unite the warring kingdoms of Mongo to rescue Dale and save our world.
Writers: Lorenzo Semple Jr., Michael Allin
Cast: Sam J. Jones
-
Flash Gordon
Melody Anderson
-
Dale Arden
Max von Sydow
-
The Emperor Ming
/
Ming's Floating Servant
(as Max Von Sydow)
Topol
-
Dr. Hans Zarkov
Ornella Muti
-
Princess Aura
Timothy Dalton
-
Prince Barin
Brian Blessed
-
Prince Vultan
Peter Wyngarde
-
Klytus
Mariangela Melato
-
Kala
John Osborne
-
Arborian Priest
Richard O'Brien
-
Fico
John Hallam
-
Luro
Philip Stone
-
Zogi, the High Priest
Suzanne Danielle
-
Serving Girl
William Hootkins
-
Munson
Filming Locations: Airstrip, Breakish, Skye, Highland, Scotland, UK
Box Office Details
Budget: $35,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $3,934,030
(USA)
(7 December 1980)
(823 Screens)
Gross: $27,107,960
(USA)
(1981)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Leon Greene was re-voiced by David de Keyser.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
There are many blue-screen compositions where characters or items appear partly transparent. This is probably due to the copying process for the travelling mattes that were used to superimpose the effects shots over one another.
Quotes:
[first lines]
The Emperor Ming:
Klytus, I'm bored. What play thing can you offer me today? Klytus:
An obscure body in the S-K System, your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet Earth.
User Review
If you think its bad you're missing the point
Rating: 10/10
I loved this movie when i was about seven, and I enjoy it even more on the
same childish level today. This is a movie that doesnt ask you to suspend
belief or insult your intelligence, because it is so blatantly make believe
right up front.
I truly believe that the makers of this movie set out to make an over the
top hammy piece of cinema. I dont think anyone can argue that, in that
respect, they succeeded. I admit that Sam J. Jones is a terrible actor
(even dubbed) but it lends it self nicely to the fact that flash just isnt
that bright. And whether intentional or not, the bad acting in this film
just helps it pull off the cheesiness to perfection. No movie with lines
such as "I love you! But we only have fourteen hours left to save the
earth!" could be considered a serious dramatic entity. Frankly I find the
approach that this movie takes to be refreshing, especialy when compared
with some ridiculously plotted movies, that while good in their own right,
insult our inteligence by taking themselves seriously (Lord of the Rings,
Star Wars, etc).
My advise to anyone watching this movie is to not expect Gone With the Wind
or Casablanca. Just have fun! And dont hold the absurdity and cheesiness of
this movie against it, because its intentional, and done
beautifuly!
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