After seeing "Ted" and all of its references to the 1980 camp classic, I had to go back and revisit FLASH GORDON. New York Jets quarterback Flash Gordon (played horribly by Sam Jones and YES I think Mark Sanchez would probably be better in the role) meets Dale Arden (Melody Anderson, an actress whose face expresses one emotion, desperation) and are soon on a rocket with Dr. Zarkov (Topol, finally a real actor). They are off to battle Ming The Merciless, played with great relish by Max Von Sydow. This is classic late seventies/early 80's camp movie making by shlock producer Dino De Laurentis, who had huge budgets but zero class. However, you have to give Dino credit for a few great ideas, like hiring some excellent actors in supporting roles, including Timothy Dalton, Brian Blessed and Sydow. Someone also had the brilliance to hire Queen to do the musical score and its the absolute best part of the film, along with production designer Danilo Donati's sets, costumes and look of the film. This is silly, silly trash, but parts of it are pretty fun. In the end though, Flash is sunk by horrible acting by it's leads, a silly screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr (following some pretty similar work on Dino's King Kong remake) and an overall goofball approach. Camp? YES. Great? NO. We'll Flash it a C.
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