The plot of this movie is almost identical to the plot in any number of other sword and sorcerer movies that came out in the 80s. Other than the fact that the title character, Red Sonja (Brigitte Nielsen), is a woman, there's not much else in the way of originality. Red Sonja's sister is killed by an evil queen (Sandahi Bergman) intent on getting her hands on a powerful orb. Red Sonja vows revenge and goes after the queen. Along the way, she gathers a ragtag band to assist her, including Cona . . . er, I mean Kalidor (Arnold Schwarzenegger). They'll have lots of adventures and battles along the way – leading to a final showdown between Sonja and the queen.Despite what a lot of people around the internet would lead you to believe, Red Sonja isn't horrible – well, not horrible when you compare it with a lot of the other Conan wannabes that came out in the early 80s. In fact, parts of the films are a lot of fun. There are some pretty decent fight scenes (the best being the sparring matches between Nielsen and Schwarzenegger), at least one interesting creature, and a couple of cool looking sets. I really enjoyed seeing Sandahi Bergman in the role of the queen. Here, she seems to be having a blast. Her final showdown with Nielsen is actually quite good and really gives the film a nice ending.Of all the problems you could list when discussing Red Sonja, the most obvious is the poor acting. My understanding is that prior to taking the role of Red Sonja, Brigitte Nielsen was a magazine model with no acting experience. This was her first role. Schwarzenegger has never been known as a thespian. He's fun to watch, but he's always been limited. Finally, Ernie Reyes Jr wasn't really an actor either. Here, he's just annoying. It says a lot about the quality of the cast when I can say in all honesty that Sandahi Bergman is the best actor in the film.Finally, one thing about Red Sonja I find hysterical is her repeated insistence that she needs no help - especially from a man. Yet at every tun, Cona . . . I mean Kalidor is there to save her butt. She'd have been dead half way through the film if it weren't for him.

Red Sonja (1985) Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brigitte Nielsen, Sandahl Bergman, Paul L. Smith, Ernie Reyes, Jr., Ronald Lacey, Pat Roach, Terry Richards, Ronald Lacey, Donna Osterbuhr, Lara Lamberti, Hans Meyer, Francesca Romana Coluzzi, Stefano Maria Mioni, Tutte Lemkow, Kiyoshi Yamasaki, and Tad Horino Directed By: Richard Fleischer Review A woman and a warrior that became a legend. Apparently Arnold uses this to punish his children, I can see why. I was dreading what I was in for when I heard about that and having just finished it I'm going to read a Red Sonja graphic novel that shows this character at her best because if anything this is her weakest. Red Sonja is a film based on Robert E. Howard character about a woman who is left for dead after her whole family is butchered and she is violated. It is because of this she does not trust men. But when her sister is killed and the talisman is stolen by Queen Gerden who intends to use the talismans power to rule the world. Red Sonja accompanied by two men and a boy must destroy the talisman and defeat Gerden. The film only has two redeeming qualities, the first being is how short it is and the other being all the cool sword fights in it. All the good things about the movie end there. The acting is some of the worst I have ever seen even from Arnold an actor who can be very good. Brigitte Nielson is a beautiful woman and with a better script could maybe make a good Sonja and the kid can be quite annoying but surprisingly didn't bother me that much. The acting still sucked. It didn't work in the actors favor that the dialogue was just the worst. The camera shots from the director are not that good either if anything most of it is standard but then there's one scene where Sonja and Kalidor are sitting by a tree and I felt that the camera was shaking a little. Red Sonja is a film that comes together as a poor attempt to give a great female sword and sorcery character her own series, I could enjoy this as a guilty pleasure movie but there were too many problems for me to ignore, it's not as bad as I was expecting and is leap and bounds better than Supergirl which is another female lead movie that tried to capitalize on her male counterpart but that's not much, I'm giving Red Sonja a 4 out of 10.

The third film in the Conan trilogy...well it pretty much was wasn't it. This film is directed by Richard Fleischer who also directed 'Conan the Destroyer', the same studio, Dino De Laurentiis Company, made all three films, Sandahl Bergman was in this film and 'Conan the Barbarian' and of course Arnie starred in all three.I mean lets be honest here, Arnie plays Lord Kalidor, the character is virtually a Conan clone, I dunno why they didn't just make him Conan and be done with it. I believe Sonja comes from the Conan universe originally (I may be wrong) so why not? I'm guessing there may have been copyright issues somewhere.So its the same story again for this fantasy adventure, need I describe the plot? A small band of goodies up against an evil baddie leader and all her baddie warriors who are all holed up in an intimidating fortress. Arnie rides around in his rather unattractive red sparkly jumpsuit (changes to a black number out of the blue half way through) whilst Nielsen sports a long red mullet cut, but she's still cute.This is suppose to be the weakest of the Arnie broadsword adventures but personally I don't see it. Its no worse than the other two and gives you just as much visual sorcery. In fact there's more fantasy stuff going on here than 'CtB', giant pet spiders, giant skeleton bridges, a metallic sea monster thingy and a silly Flash Gordon style baddie wizard. This film boarders more on other films such as 'Krull' and a bit of 'Willow' in my opinion.Reasonable amounts of blood and limb chopping but not overkill. Everything looks a bit tacky later on in the film but again no worse than the other two films. Unfortunately there is an annoying kid in this film, kinda like Data from 'The Goonies' or Short Round from 'Temple of Doom' (same kid actor there), tends to give the film a more slapstick approach at times, 'Conan the Barbarian' was always the most grown up of the three.At this point I reckon Arnie was possibly getting worried he may end up typecast as a barbarian meathead in fantasy films. I can see why this was his last as all three of these films are very similar and not overly wonderful frankly. Still the musical score was always in good hands with Morricone at the helm, how did they manage that? As a kid I loved these films, nowadays the rose tinted shades can't quite save them, amusing and naff, oh and the baddie Queen is a lesbian. Oh yeah, the whole story is down to Sonja simply rejecting her advances at the start, fancy that.5/10

Gedren seeks total power, so she attacks and kills the keepers of a powerful talisman just before it is destroyed. Gedren then uses the power of the talisman in her raid of Hablac. Red Sonja, sister of the keeper, sets out with her magic sword to overthrow Gedren. The talisman's master Kalidor follows to protect her. He falls for her, but Sonja's power bases on the oath to never give herself to any man...It's not a good film, the makers are just cashing in on Schwarzenegger's success with his first few movies, that is why he is first billed and is so predominant on the one sheet.The film basically consists of Sonja and her group, stalking Schwarzenegger, a little prince who is smug, and his servant, walking from one scene to the next, occasionally having a sword fight.The villains spend the majority of the film in a candle lit room, staring at an orb, until the final battle.Oh, and there is a bit with a metal snake fish.It's boring, mundane stuff, but it has wonderful scenery, and an excellent score by Morricone.This is one of those films where you'd rather stare at the one sheet because it's more entertaining.Not very good at all.