Flash (Aaah!) Gordon (1980)

[Spartan Girl]

What the hell, this turned 40 this year.

Yes, it is one of the ultimate “so bad it’s kind of good” cheesy sci-fi cult classic 80s movies. And it would be nothing without the kickass Queen soundtrack.

For the record, I never would have even heard of this had it not been so brilliantly skewered on VH1’s I Love the 80s. It’s now a guilty pleasure movie, even more so now because of the damn coronavirus. 

So yeah, there will be a remake at some point. But for now, would anyone be interested in discussing the campy over-the-top performances of Max van Sydow, Brian Blessed, Topol, and Timothy Dalton?

Edited December 13, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[BlackberryJam]

Ming the Merciless devoured that scenery and I loved it. He was a devious, bitchy death queen in incredible eyeliner.

[caracas1914]

On 12/13/2020 at 7:45 AM, Spartan Girl said:

What the hell, this turned 40 this year.

Yes, it is one of the ultimate “so bad it’s kind of good” cheesy sci-fi cult classic 80s movies. And it would be nothing without the kickass Queen soundtrack.

For the record, I never would have even heard of this had it not been so brilliantly skewered on VH1’s I Love the 80s. It’s now a guilty pleasure movie, even more so now because of the damn coronavirus. 

So yeah, there will be a remake at some point. But for now, would anyone be interested in discussing the campy over-the-top performances of Max van Sydow, Brian Blessed, Topol, and Timothy Dalton?

I'd rather focus on Ornella Muti,, best sci antiheroine  EVER......  Shocked no awards came her way.

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, caracas1914 said:

I'd rather focus on Ornella Muti,, best sci antiheroine  EVER......  Shocked no awards came her way.

I did love Princess Aura and her outfits. 

[pancake bacon]

Okay… I was old enough to see this in the cinemas (I was a wee child!), but I already knew to love to love Flash Gordon then. The Queen theme song just stays indelible in the mind the first time you hear it.

Actually, the love for the movie grew over many repeat viewings first on video tape (!), DVD and now, Blu-Ray. It's the quotable quote movie that you and your siblings endlessly refer to, and get instant, real laughs. ("Klyyyyytus, I'm booohred…")

I love how low-fi it is (though I'm sure it is not the studio's intention!), and when I was beyond wee child status, I realized that the sense of humor this movie had going for it. In the opening Klytus/Ming scene where they decide to play around with a thing called "uhrrrrrrth", we see a panel of all sorts of disasters to push out and wreak havoc on our planet. One button is identified as "Earth Quake", even though they had never heard of "Earth" before! Oh, Flash… I love you, but this silliness…

Edited December 23, 2020 by pancake bacon
Clarifying/correcting an important thought.

[Unclejosh]

I love that almost all of Sam Jones dialogue is overdubbed.  I guess he was a real ahole on the set as well and caused all sorts of problems and left so couldn't do any ADR.

[pancake bacon]

7 hours ago, Unclejosh said:

I love that almost all of Sam Jones dialogue is overdubbed.  I guess he was a real ahole on the set as well and caused all sorts of problems and left so couldn't do any ADR.

At the very least within the range of ahole, as Sam Jones, in just his second acting role, also fell prey to his "advisers" at that time. Some choices were made that led to Jones not finishing the entire principal photography, and some shots were completed with his stand-in. But Sam fully owns up to what happened in that era, and accepted the consequences of his actions. He worked his life around, stepped away from movies and became a quite successful security specialist. (Flash [Ahh!] Gordon can be your bodyguard!) 

The recent August 2020 4K/Blu-ray release not only is an eye-candy restoration of the film, but has several, amazing extras (though some were from previous editions of the home version). The two best though, are a feature-length documentary Life After Flash, that details what happened to Sam as described above, how he reconnected to Flash thanks to the Ted movies, and re-embracing his Flash Gordon heritage; and a new audio commentary from Sam Jones and Melody Anderson, and these two clearly have great fun whenever they're together. Melody is hilarious and both of them don't take themselves too seriously. 

 

[Helena Dax]

I saw this film in the cinema and as a kid, I thought it was amazing. In fact, I remember most of it. It's also the first time I listened to Queen and I loved them! The whole soundtrack is brilliant.

[Spartan Girl]

Thanks for telling me about Life After Flash! I just watched it on tubi and it was really good! I had no idea that they dubbed another actor’s voice for Flash but that explains so much. I am glad that Sam straightened his ass out and owned up to his shit. He seems happy now. And I have to say that he looks better than he did in the Ted movies.

I think I need to get the Blu Ray because I wanna hear that commentary!

I really wish they kept Aura in the pink outfit at the end of the movie instead of sticking her back in the metal bikini. 

[Spartan Girl]

We lost Topol aka Dr. Zarkov today. The memory wipe scene still freaks me out.

 

[Jaded]

Since this isn't posted in the thread yet figured I'd add it.
 

 

[Spartan Girl]

I listened to that song on my Queen album ALL THE TIME.

And now I just might do that tonight :)