OK, Conan pretty much ROCKS

[Swoop109]

Kull is also one of my guilty pleasures. I know it's bad, but there is still enough there to make me watch it late night when nothing else is on.
Still, when I know what the movie could have been like it almost makes me cry. Seems that there are excerpts and an interview with the screenwriter on line.
If you want know what the Kull movie could have been, then read "The Road to Kull..."

 

[Orius]

Hmm, that original script sounds like it would have rocked hard. Still, the story really didn't change too much overall, except for some consolitation and bad dialogue. And I still like the scene where he smashes the tablets. That's an iconic Kull moment, and it was definitely needed.

 

[Threedub]

And for extra credit: Who remembers the Mad Magazine parody of the movie?

What I still call the film:

"Conehead the Barbiturate"

 

[Templetroll]

I have mixed feelings about the movie... the action was pretty good, it had a decent script.... but... the scene where Conan gets slapped around by Doom's two thugs really bugged me... I mean, Conan wasn't tied up or anything, and he gets slapped around?! That isn't Conan... and then there were the buckets of fake blood splashing all over the place...

Wait. Who was alive at the end of the movie? Who was large and in charge? Conan.

Conan got his butt whipped often and while he did great against one big monster, like that snake, he was brought down by some dweeb amongst many who hig him in the head and knocked him out. Actually, add up how many times Conan gets knocked unconscious in the stories; he had serious brain trauma there!

Conan was at his best when he had to battle back and succeed against unbeatable odds.

 

[David Howery]

Wait. Who was alive at the end of the movie? Who was large and in charge? Conan.

Conan got his butt whipped often and while he did great against one big monster, like that snake, he was brought down by some dweeb amongst many who hig him in the head and knocked him out. Actually, add up how many times Conan gets knocked unconscious in the stories; he had serious brain trauma there!

Conan was at his best when he had to battle back and succeed against unbeatable odds.

yeah, but do you remember any scene in the stories where he was conscious and unbound and someone slapped him around? Someone who was just a man, not a giant demon or something?

 

[Aesthetic Monk]

Talk in this thread about the anthologies got me to buy a copy the other day. Still have to finish something else first, but I'm excited to plunge in. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Desdichado]

I actually prefer animation to live action for these kinds of stories, as long as the budget is high enough for a sufficient level of realism, because you can get away with so much more in terms of FX without looking cheesy.

You can, but will you? That's the big question. Because I just saw Fire & Ice recently (actually I turned it off about half an hour in) and it's terrible.

Although maybe that's just because Ralph Bakshi is a talentless hack rather than because animation literally won't work. I dunno.

 

[jcfiala]

If you like the books (and you should), I recommend Dark Horse comic's Conan series. The comics are beautifully illustrated (honestly, some of the best art being done in comics right now) and are adapted directly from REH's stories.

I've been reading them myself, and they're really good - I've picked up the first two collections so far.