Flash Gordon (1980) - Review

Flash.  Aaaahhhh!

 Flash Gordon is known as one of those quentessential bad movies, up there with Manos: Hands of Fate (or Hands: Hands of Fate for you Latin speakers out there), The Room, Plan 9 from Outer Space, etc.  And you know what?  I mostly agree, but with the caveat that it's not nearly as bad as the previously mentioned films.  Sure, it's not at all a good movie, but it doesn't deserved to be lumped into those 'best worst movie of all time' lists.

The plot concerns the titular football player who travels to planet Mongo and fights an evil emperor named Ming -- I've already lost you.  Yeah, it's about as ridiculous to watch as it is to read or to type.  Let's make no mistake; some serious drugs went into the creation of this movie, and it's all the better for it.  It's like it wants to be Star Wars but has no idea what makes Star Wars such a fantastic film.  Instead we get Queen (awesome), Sam J. Jones (awesome), and... lots of silly setpieces and overly long sequences.  Still sort of awesome.

All-American Savior of  the Universe of 1980!

So yeah, Queen totally did the soundtrack for this movie.  That's about all I have to say about that.  As great of a band as Queen is, most of the music in this is dullllll.  Other than the title song, of course.  Really if you want a good Queen soundtrack, go with Highlander.  But I'm done letting Queen hog this review; who do they think they are, the Princes of the Universe or something?

I guess I'm dancing around talking about the movie because simply writing about it doesn't really do it justice.  I could list off some of the funny parts and ridiculous moments in the movie, but like any good cult film, they're best seen with a group of friends, not read about on the Internet from some guy.  Provided you have the $5-10 to buy it on Amazon and friends to watch it with, this makes for a great party movie.  I can't say that it's a good movie, but it's definitely a loveable one.