Whatever happened to Sword & Sorcery Cinema?

[WayneLigon]

I remember the campy Sword and Socerers tv show that was on in the 80s (I think it was called "Swords and Socerers").

Wizards and Warriors, starring that guy from Taxi that never did anything else as far as I can remember.

 

[Storm Raven]

Wizards and Warriors, starring that guy from Taxi that never did anything else as far as I can remember.

Jeff Conaway.

He also appeared in the movie Grease, the movie Pete's Dragon, the telvision series Babylon 5 and a whole pile of B-movies, made for television movies, and lesser television series, including a stint on to soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful

 

[reapersaurus]

You know, Destroyer always gets a bad rap. I happened to ENJOY it more than the first movie on many levels. Why? It is one of the best D&D style storylines ever put to film. It was basically about a party full of different classes on a quest. Heck, they even had thieves backstabbing and burley fighters not only making a Bend Bars roll, but a Lift Gates one was well! Ha. Bottom line sure it was corny but it was FUN. The sword fights didn't suck and the characters were interesting. Oh, and the music rocked.

BTW, it may be interesting to know that Destroyer's storyline was written by Roy Thomas who penned the excellent run of Savage Sword of Conan comics, and it shows.

WOW!
Someone who knows their movies!

I agree on every point:
Most people completely ignore the great classic storyline that Roy Thomas and partenr actually brought to screen (a Herculean effort even back then).
Come on - a shadow-dragon kidnapping the princess into an ice tower that they climb mammoth ice stairs into a sanctum sanctorum of mirrors that the hero has to figure out the puzzle, classes o-plenty, great fights, a barbarian-woman that's probably the best ever onscreen representation (Grace Jones), a monster-god come to life, etc etc etc.

Man, this thing OOZES classic story elements. This is _objectively_ cool stuff for geeks, people.

I'm always disappointed when people instead concentrate on dialogue, or casting, or true-to-source-material, etc complaints.

 

[WayneLigon]

the telvision series Babylon 5

And as big a Bab5 fan as I am, I forgot him as Zack. *headhang*

 

[Decado]

Wow I think I am the only person who liked The Beastmaster movie. That movie along with Conan the Barbarian and Dragonslayer were my favorites as a kid.

Decado

 

[Ranger REG]

Wow I think I am the only person who liked The Beastmaster movie. That movie along with Conan the Barbarian and Dragonslayer were my favorites as a kid.

I only liked the movie because of Tanya Roberts, though I hated the PG rating.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Conan the Destroyer was a fun film and I admit to liking it without even a hint of shame. If you are some Robert Howard cult follower - ok. But as a movie it worked just fine - and frankly - I don't know why you are talking about it as if it was Red Sonja.

To compare it to Highlander 2 is nutty. Conan The Destroyer was a box office hit and solidifed Arnold as an A list star. Highlander 2 was so disastrously conceived the bond company was called in to finish it.

As for no S&S movies - I do think you are all forgetting the Scorpion King - which was certainly in the genre, made use of CGI effects and is as close as we have got in the 21st century to this tradition. (To say nothing of D&D1 and D&D 2. As bad as D&D 1 was - I'd take it over a half-dozen bad 80s S&S films any day.)

LotR as a fantasy genre film series has obviously done phenomenally well - in the Star Wars zone. If anything, the quality of LotR has spoiled us and intimidated would be imitators. Harry Potter remains a box office machine. Narnia (which I have not seen) is another attempt at making "classical fantasy" to tap into that market success. Whether it suceeds or not - I have no idea.

You are also all forgetting a slew of fantasy genre TV in the 90s which approximated the 80s S&S: Hercules, Xena, Conan, Sinbad and Robin Hood have all had their run.

 

[ssampier]

Wow I think I am the only person who liked The Beastmaster movie. That movie along with Conan the Barbarian and Dragonslayer were my favorites as a kid.

Decado

I like Beastmaster*, I did not like Beastmaster 2.

heck I like Masters of the Universe in the same vein as "There's-Nothing-Better-On-and-Skeletor-looks-kinda-cool-in-Gold"

 

[WayneLigon]

I like Beastmaster*, I did not like Beastmaster 2.

Same here. And what happened to Singer between movie 1 and movie 2? Nine years later, it looks like he aged like 20 years.

 

[Klaus]

Chalk me up as a fan of Beastmaster 1. Years later, when I first discovered Dark Sun, I got a really athasian vibe from Beastmaster.

Plus how can you go wrong with a black tiger, a brown eagle and two ferrets?