A beautiful movie, simple story that was well written and directed , of course it will not won an oscar , but after 39 years from it produced and with those old special effects back then, I guarante to all , you will not regret, you will enjoy as I really enjoyed watching it with my kids, it's simple ,charm, magic and funny, that the kind of movies we are missing in these days, it's really worth your time .
... View MoreIt's pretty fun but it's let down by its slowly paced (though still quite good) script, the less than stellar direction of Kevin Connor and its low budget look. The special effects were not terribly good by 1979 standards but I was more concerned with the cheap sets. I hoped that it would be as outrageously fun as Connor's previous film "At the Earth's Core" or a Ray Harryhausen film but it wasn't, I'm afraid.None of the Caucasians make very convincing Arabs - particularly John Ratzenberger and, of all people, Mickey Rooney - but it was a good idea not to overdo the make-up. Christopher Lee, Milo O'Shea (even if his Irish accent seems particularly incongruous!) and, in a nice cameo, Peter Cushing are certainly the strongest cast members. Oliver Tobias and Emma Samms are not very engaging leads but they're fine. The same is true of the child actor Puneet Sira, now a successful Bollywood director. It also features nice, small appearances from Shane Rimmer and a very young Art Malik.6.5/10, maybe 7/10 if I'm feeling generous.
... View MorePrince Oliver Tobias will be granted permission to marry Princess Emma Samms if he succeeds in a quest to find a magic flower for her father, wicked Caliph Christopher Lee. However, the wicked Caliph has contrived to send along duplicitous Milo O'Shea to make sure the quest fails.This fantasy adventure features special effects which weren't all that special back at the time (back projected backgrounds behind flying carpets with wiggly edges, and models which scream "I am a model!" chief among them), some dodgy fighting, some screamingly though unintentionally funny dialogue, not massively heroic performances from Tobias and Samms, Mickey Rooney overacting as if his life depends on it, and beautifully understated villainy from Christopher Lee.For all that, there is a naïve enthusiasm about it which pleases and, at the time, we had nothing better. But these days we are used to our fantasy being a little less unsophisticated.
... View Morethis film is pathetic the acting (if you could call it that is cardboard and predictable) the plot again is predictable and so clichéd (with no real attempt to even disguise the cliché). I didn't know that thieves had cockney accents in 'arabia'. what makes it even worst is that all the actors are supposed to be Arab but just have lots of fake tan on. it looks like everything from every fantasy and storybook has been thrown into a bag and pulled out in some random order. the story doesn't seem to focus on one magic thing to the next this is too dull a film to mention in fact i couldn't get through the whole thing without giving up and deciding that this is a wholesale waste of my time. i was very surprised to see that this film had been made in 1979. i mean, star wars had been made by then, Indiana Jones wasn't far off. jaws had been made and yet the effects in this film are pathetic. i could not justify giving this film any more than a one as a rating.
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