Tag: adventure

Barbarian Queen A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Barbarian Queen (1985) – A Movie A Day 2021 #28

The awesome Boris Vallejo poster for Barbarian Queen.

Earlier today I came across a poster for the movie Warrior Queen. I’ve never seen the movie, but the poster features artwork by the fantastic fantasy artist Boris Vallejo which immediately got me interested. As someone who grew up reading my dad’s old Conan comics, many of them with Boris Vallejo covers, I have a soft spot for Boris’s style of epic fantasy art. Now, I understand that many of the sword and sandals/sorcery movies that came out in the wake of the Conan the Barbarian movie in 1982 are cheaply made and often cheesy and/or trashy, and the fantastic poster artwork in no way represents what the actual movie is like, but I don’t care. I like cheap, cheesy, and trashy movies, so it all works out. With that in mind I headed over to Tubi to see if I could find Warrior Queen. I did find it, and I found a handful of other movies with similar artwork and similar writeups. With so many choices I had the thought of maybe watching a few of them, so instead of starting with Warrior Queen which was released in 1987, I chose Barbarian Queen which was released in 1985 (and also features Boris artwork). And if you were wondering if I was right about Barbarian Queen being cheap, cheesy, and trashy, I have just two words for you: Roger Corman. 

Apparently Roger Corman produced a series of films in Argentina in the 80s, ten of them if Wikipedia is to be believed, and Barbarian Queen was one of his earlier Argentinian productions. If you know who Roger Corman is, then you might be familiar with the quality of many of his produced films. His name has been attached to many, many cheap genre films which are often very fun in the campiest of ways. Barbarian Queen is no exception to that rule.

Barbarian Queen is a story about revenge. In a small barbarian village, Queen Amethea is getting prepared to be wed to Prince Argan. Then, in a plot point that seems to happen in most of these types of movies including Conan the Barbarian, a troop of fighters led by the nefarious Lord Arrakur invades the village. Nearly everyone is either killed or taken prisoner, and the entire village is burned to the ground. Amethea manages to survive and avoid capture, and she and a handful of other female barbarians set out to rescue the remainder of their village including Argan and Taramis, Amethea’s younger sister. 

What starts out as a fun adventure movie with Amethea and her crew slaughtering bad guys in bloody fashion turns into almost a women-in-prison film. Amethea and her companions are captured after sneaking into Arrakur’s city, and they end up getting entangled with a plot to overthrow the evil leader. How that mostly plays out though is through threats, arguing, and torture. Amethea has to find a way to escape imprisonment which leads up to the climactic final battle with Arrakur and his forces.

For its cheesiness and trashiness, I enjoyed Barbarian Queen. I would have preferred more fighting in the middle parts of the movie, but the movie is only about 70 minutes long, and I was never bored throughout the run-time. This is one of those movies where the director found every opportunity to remove people’s clothing, and I can imagine, for that reason more than most, this was a decent money-maker back in the days of VHS. For someone watching it today, it was a light and easy viewing, but there are many movies just like it out there. Barbarian Queen didn’t really stand out, and I probably won’t revisit it any time soon, but I enjoyed it for what it is. That said, the best part of the movie is absolutely the poster.

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Tomb Raider (2018) A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Tomb Raider (2018) – A Movie A Day 2021 #24

Tomb Raider poster

I remember pouring hours and hours into the first Tomb Raider game when it was released on the Playstation back in 1996. It was one of the early games that I would play over and over to try to explore every inch of the locations and discover every secret. I Instantly became a huge fan of the series and of its main character, Lara Croft. Clearly lots of other people felt the same way I did (and still do) because many more games have been released over the years, and Lara Croft has become something of a pop culture icon. Lara has appeared in pretty much every form of media imaginable, and of course her stories have been adapted into live-action films. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the two movies starring Angelina Jolie as Lara, but I do remember enjoying them pretty well. For me though, the 2018 Tomb Raider movie is the best of the bunch. 

Tomb Raider stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, and the movie’s look and story are inspired by the 2013 reimagining of the Tomb Raider game series. The plots of the game and movie are vaguely similar, but there are some huge differences between the two that helps each stand on its own without inviting too many direct comparisons. In the movie, Lara Croft is a young woman struggling to make enough money to survive despite have a huge inheritance waiting for her if she chooses to accept it. Her father, Richard Croft (Dominic West), went missing seven years ago and is presumed dead, but Lara feels that if she accepts her inheritance, then she must also accept that her father is truly gone. One day Lara discovers that her father was leading a secret life as something of a treasure hunter, and some clues to his destination seven years ago lead Lara to the island of Yamatai near Japan. Lara’s father was chasing the legend of Himiko, an ancient queen who commanded power over life and death, and when Lara arrives on Yamatai, she discovers that it wasn’t just her father who was searching for Himiko. A group of dangerous mercenaries led by a man named Mathias (Walton Goggins) is on the island, and Lara’s unexpected arrival sets off a chain of events that could lead to dire consequences for the entire world.

Like the game it’s based on, Tomb Raider is full of brutal action and elaborate set pieces. Lara is forced to fight for her life against trained killers as she searches for answers about what happened to her father. Alicia Vikander is perfect for the role of this updated version of Lara Croft, and seeing her in action is a ton of fun. The character arc for Lara is pretty similar to how she progresses in the game, and I very much appreciate that. Lara goes from being overwhelmed and nearly dying multiple times to being a strong and determined force who uses her brains as much as her athletic ability to overcome incredible odds. Walton Goggins is also great as the cruel and merciless Mathias, a man who will do anything to anyone just so long as he can finish his job and go home after so many years on Yamatai.

The action in Tomb Raider is very good, and it does feel a lot like the 2013 game to me. It does take a long while to get into some actual tombs for raiding, but as an introduction to this new Lara Croft, I was still quite entertained. There are a lot of neat puzzles that Lara has to solve, and there are a lot of guys for her to kill, and that’s really what the game series comes down to for the most part. The games do tend to venture into supernatural elements, and that, unfortunately, is where the movie differs from the games the most.

The legend of Himiko is described multiple times throughout the movie, and when I first saw it in the theater I was hoping for a huge final act with some magic and mayhem. The movie goes a different route though, and that did disappoint me somewhat on my initial viewing. I’ve just recently watched it for the second time though, and knowing what to expect definitely helped me enjoy the final act a lot more. If I hadn’t been such a big fan of the games then I wouldn’t have felt that anything was missing. The buildup to the magic-lacking finale is foreshadowed well throughout the movie, I just wasn’t paying much attention to that when I first watched it. I enjoyed Tomb Raider the first time, but I enjoyed it even more the second time. 

I’ve heard that a second Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander has been announced, but the disruption caused by the pandemic has put it on hold with no set date for when it might come together. Hopefully Tomb Raider II does get made though, because I really enjoyed it. Plus, in the next movie we can get right to the tombs and the raiding without all the buildup! I think Warner Brothers and Sony should get together and work out a deal to create a shared universe with Tomb Raider and the upcoming Uncharted movie. I’d love to see Lara Croft and Nathan Drake chase after the same artifact only to have them team up to defeat some nefarious terrorist organization in the end.

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Cut and Run A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Cut and Run (1985) – A Movie A Day 2021 #14

The artwork used in the Cut and Run poster.

Today’s movie choice was another decision largely guided by the film’s poster. Whenever I want to watch something old and trashy, more and more I find myself going to Tubi and skimming through their catalog. I’ll find a movie that looks somewhat interesting, then I’ll keep clicking through the recommendations that movie pulls up until I find something that forces me to stop. This time, it was Michael Berryman that gave me pause. The poster for today’s movie, Cut and Run, features an amazing image of Michael Berryman getting ready to swing a machete at a group of unsuspecting people in what appears to be some sort of jungle lake or river. That was all I needed to see. My search for the night was over.

Cut and Run is an Italian production, but it was filmed primarily in English with a predominantly American lead cast. The film stars Lisa Blount (of Prince of Darkness fame) as Fran, a reporter who is looking to break a huge story to boost her career. Fran is joined by her cameraman, Mark, as she heads to South America to follow a lead that involves a bloody drug war, a supposedly dead cult leader, and her boss’s missing son. It’s a very convenient set of circumstances that sets up what the movie is really mostly all about: Fran and Mark trying to stay alive in a South American jungle as they are chased by vicious natives and, of course, Michael Berryman. 

Cut and Run was directed by Ruggero Deodato, and even if you don’t know that name, you might be familiar with his most famous movie: the notoriously brutal Cannibal Holocaust. While Cut and Run is not anywhere near as violent and disturbing as Cannibal Holocaust, it does share a lot of the same themes. The movies are so similar that even before I realized who directed Cut and Run, I was noting many common themes. I won’t spoil anything for either movie, but both of them focus heavily on the juxtaposition of savagery and civilized society. That theme is central to Cannibal Holocaust and is explored in nearly every second of its run time. The theme takes more of a backseat in Cut and Run, but it’s still very clear when we see repeated feeds of Fran in the jungle being transmitted live to plush, high-tech offices in the United States. Also, both movies feature similar locations, and the usage of the native people is largely the same. So yeah, there are lots of similarities, but Cut and Run is WAY more accessible for general audiences.

I do think I watched the tame version of Cut and Run though. Looking at a few reviews, I see people referring to excessive violence and nudity. I saw some violence and nudity, but not to the extent I see some of these reviews describing. Also, some of the edits looked very abrupt and janky, so I’m going to blame that on the additional cuts. 

I’d be interested in watching Cut and Run again with the longer, more extreme cut so I can see what I missed. As it is, I enjoyed what I saw. It might try to do a little too much for a movie that’s basically about violence and survival (there’s a Jim-Jones-esque sub-plot and the missing son thing feels unnecessary), but it’s still fun. I will say that I was very disappointed when a certain character didn’t make it to the end of the movie, but I got over my grief and still managed to have a good time. As for a recommendation, I think Cut and Run is a fun action movie with some nice, cheesy violence. If you like action movies set in a jungle (which seemed to happen a lot in the 80s), and if you like Michael Berryman, I’d say give the movie a shot.

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Dolittle A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Dolittle – A Movie A Day #85

I’ve heard lots of not-so-good things about Dolittle over the past few weeks, but as always, I like to judge for myself. I like Robert Downey Jr., and even though I haven’t enjoyed all of his movies, I’ll still go see pretty much anything he’s in. Plus, the cast of voices for the animals is great. The trailers didn’t look fantastic to me, but they didn’t look bad either. So I was mildly looking for to Dolittle. After seeing it, I don’t think it’s fantastic, but it’s certainly not as terrible as some of the dog-piling online reviews would lead you to believe. I enjoyed it.

RDJ plays, of course, Dr. Dolittle. We’re told at the beginning of the movie about how Dolittle can talk to animals and how he used to travel the world with his wife Lily, and they created a family of animal friends as Dolittle helped each and eery one of them. Lily disappeared while on a voyage to find a mysterious island, and since then Dolittle has closed his animal hospital, living like a hermit with only his animal friends as company. But when the Queen Victoria falls deathly ill, Dolittle is pulled out of his self-imposed exile to try to save her (and his own home at the same time).

The plot follows the adventures of Dolittle, his band of jovial animal friends, and Stubbins, a young man who feels more at home with animals than he does at home. It’s a CGI-heavy adventure with quips, action, and some fun scenarios.

Some of the jokes weren’t for me, but really, I didn’t have any complaints about the movie. It’s light-hearted family fare. Could it have been better? Sure, but you can say that about any movie. I understand that there were a lot of pre-release shenanigans involving rewrites and reshoots, but all that really matters in the end is what makes it to the screen. What I saw was about what I expected: a fun family adventure with silly jokes and little in the way of any real danger or tense situations. It doesn’t always make sense (like, if Dolittle talks to the animals in their own “languages,” how do the animals all talk to each other?), but who cares? For a movie like this, making sense doesn’t matter as much as making a big, fun spectacle. I thought the spectacle was fine.

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