Rating: 
Summary: Classic animation and adventure
Review: Long before the thrills of computers generated actions by aliens and exotic creatures, artists used frame by frame manipulation to bring life to the dinosaurs and other monsters who inhabited the cellulose. Ray Harryhausen, a master in this tedious task, meticulously moved the mythological beings to create the illusions. His influence in filmmaking is legendary, and brought about growth in the fantasy, surrealistic, mythology of legendary stories. Historical significance: Star one Artistry: Star two Many of us will remember sitting in a crowded theater in order to be part of Sinbad's world. We remember the awe as animals took on life that "had" to be real as we left our own lives behind to journey with wanderers and sailors. New generations discover Sinbad, and are lured into the story. Nostalgia and sharing fantasies across generations: Star three. There are two main characters holding the power of the destiny of Prince Kassim, who has been turned into a baboon that will lose all his humanity at the next full moon. The first is Sinbad and the second is the wicked step-mother Zenobia who wants her son to rule as a puppet under her control. The characters were under developed in this version. This creates a problem because no one stands out as the hero (or protagonist), though Zenobia was the antagonist. Generally a movie or book is stronger when the antagonist is equal to the task of defeating the protagonist. In this case it took an eclectic group to defeat her. Multiple heroes (Sinbad, Malanthius, Trog) shift the focus away from Sinbad, and do not allow us to get emotionally attached to any of them. Sinbad was not strong enough due to the weak performance of Patrick Wayne. This created events that happened "to" Sinbad. In more successful versions Sinbad is an aggressive swashbuckling hero who takes command of the journey; catastrophe still strikes at his every turn, but he has the strength to overcome the unexpected. We care what happens next. Still, Sinbad takes us to this world of fantasy and mythology. We do not know what the next adventure will be, or when the next beast will dominate the screen. The story lines shift quixotically, and capture the audiences, who suspend disbelief. Successfully restoring Prince Kassim, ridding the world of the wicked Zenobia and her son, finding romance and action that still entertain -- Star four. How about a remake? Let's cast a few stars of our own and find actors who could give these roles the power to be equal adversaries? Sinbad: Keanu Reeves has shown his strength, agility, and tenderness in numerous movies (Speed, The Matrix, A Walk in the Clouds, Chain Reaction). He is both dashing and arrogant, and has charm and charisma that would create a believable character who is strong enough to be the protagonist. His action films already have us believing that he will succeed with sword, dagger, or words. Jason Patric has yet to achieve the acting status that he deserves, but as Sinbad his good looks and boyish grin could melt the heart of a princess. By doing his own stunts in Speed 2 it is easy to see that he would be able to wield a sword as well as any swashbuckler. Benjamin Bratt could cut a strong path through the roll in the tradition of Douglas Fairbanks as the Black Pirate. He is intense (Law and Order), charming (Miss Congeniality) and has the rare qualities that will take a TV actor to the top of the movie heroes. Then let's pair him with Julia Roberts as the princess who is his equal. Zenobia: Glenn Close has proven her amazing talents through such films as: Fatal Attraction, 101 Dalmatians, Dangerous Liaisons, Air Force One, Jagged Edge and many more. She has the ability to be in control, conniving, beautiful but deadly, and vulnerable. She would add depth to Zenobia. Susan Sarandon can create the appearance of support, deceit, betrayal, vulnerability, sensuality, love or hate through those large expressive eyes. She fits the part, whatever it is. Sarandon is charismatic on screen whether she is playing a beauty (Bull Duram, The Witches of Eastwick) or not (Stepmom). She would add unquestionable elegance and danger to the role. Cher's exotic beauty, husky voice, acting skills, and screen presence would allow her to create a Zenobia that is deep, deceptive, and powerful. Her performances in Moonstruck, Silkwood, The Mask, and others show an actor with a wide range of talents. The mythological monsters: This would be an easy challenge for magic of George Lucas.
Rating: 
Summary: Marvellous fun!
Review: Much more enjoyable than the solemn, ponderous GOLDEN VOYAGE, EYE OF THE TIGER is an energetic and tacky and lively entertainment! Patrick Wayne is far too American a Sinbad, but he's brash and likable; and Jane Seymour and Tamyrn Power are huge improvements over the dreary Caroline Munro! And the sorceress is terrific, as is her minion Minoton (why not just Minotaur?!). Harryhausen's Minotaur (Minoton), Tiger, Baboon, and Walrus, especially, are superlatively eerie and spectatcular. This movie is great fun and much more enjoyable than GOLDEN--though SEVENTH VOYAGE remains the sine qua non! david g
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe if I saw it in the 70's...
Review: Now I can enjoy a campy movie as much as the next guy, but this film will give you a stomach full of it early on. I watched this film the first time on late night television years ago. When I saw it sitting on the shelf, I recalled some cloudy notion of having enjoyed it. After convincing my girlfriend that it wasn't as bad as it looked, we took it home. Needless to say she made it to about the "attack of the killer walrus" scene before walking out. While I do not always agree with her opinions on movies, I could find very little to defend in this film. Do yourself a favor and catch it on late night TV, or better yet just flip over to the test pattern.
Rating:
Summary: satisfactory
Review: One of the well pictured Sinbad stories. Good for viewing with family. Adventure well appreciated by children.
Rating:
Summary: Less than stellar Sinbad has its moments
Review: Patrick Wayne is a wooden Sinbad but that is true of all the actors that have played the role (with the exception of John Phillip Law what he lacked in swashbuckling style he did make up for in his acting chops). What matters in the Sinbad films is the style of the film and the special effects everything else is secondary in a Harryhausen film. It's clear that by the third installment Harryhausen, Beverly Cross and their collaborators were running out ideas. Eye of the Tiger tends to borrow from other Harryhausen films (the prince is transformed forcing Sinbad to undertake a quest in a far and distant land: There's an evil sorcerer or sorcereress involved, etc.). Still Cross and Harryhausen manage to come up with a few fresh surprises and twists that make this third installment enjoyable if not essential. Margaret Whitting hams up her role as Sinbad's evil nemesis. Like the supberg Tom Baker and Torin Thatcher in the previous two installments she brings both considerable energy and enjoyment to her role. The result is that she gives the film a much needed energy boost at important moments. Wayne has the pedigree necessary for the role and while his acting chops leave a bit to be desired he isn't done any favors by an underwritten part. If a Sinbad as hollow as this is the centerpiece of a film, it can only further weaken a by the numbers plot. Jane Seymour takes a detour into the fantasy genre and manages to bring considerably more depth to her role than is evident in the original script. The wonderful Patrick Troughton (Dr. Who and Jason and The Argonauts) gives a wonderful over the top performance as a scientific wizard that Sinbad enlists to help reverse the spell put on a member of the royal family. He along with Whitting manages to invest his scenes with enough energy for two or three films. His over the top performance is perfect for this campy classic. Harryhausen's optical effects are very good. The demon skeletons may recall previous achievements but the scene is more than energetic enough to be entertaining. Harryhausen as usual manages to bring more acting chops to his inanimate armatures than most performers do during their entire career. Although the story that he and Cross have concocted isn't up to the usual standards one expects from both of them it still manages to entertain. The direction by Sam Wanamaker is fairly weak and choppy. The action sequences are, for the most part, competantly put together but they lack the visual flair of previous outings. Wanamaker was a fine actor and a good actor's director but is outof his depth with an action adventure film such as this. Many of the sequences are clumsily staged and the expected dramatic payoff isn't there. All in all this is a pleasing adventure in the series. Don't pick up the VHS copy as the film is grainy, dirty and has faded significantly. Clearly Columbia didn't put any thought or money into restoring it. There also aren't any extras (unlike the DVD).
Rating: 
Summary: Eye of the Tiger = The Best Sinbad Yet!
Review: Sinbad & The Eye of the Tiger is by far my favoriteadventure from the series. The monsters are excellent and veryconvincing. The bronze minotaur especially, had a very strong, ominous presence. At times you tend to forget that all of it isn't live action. Margaret Whiting who plays the ruthless villain, Zenobia is excellent, and after awhile makes you really want to see her finally meet her match. This is one tale on the high seas that is a must have!
Rating:
Summary: A Much Better Film Than Given Credit For
Review: The third of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad films has gotten a bad rap over the years for Beverly Cross' script (which Harryhausen co-authored) and some of the performances, notably Patrick Wayne as Sinbad. The rap is largely unfair, for the film is quite entertaining, though admittedly flawed (mostly because of Sam Wanamaker's choppy direction), thanks to a strong cast and Ray Harryhausen's always-pleasing animation. The story revolves around Kassim, the caliph of Baghdad, who mysteriously disappears around the time of his coronation. Sinbad, arriving in Baghdad both to sell cargo and also to see the caliph's sister (Jane Seymour, who here plays a princess and still looks like one 22 years later), is drawn into a trap by Rafi (Kurt Christian) and his evil mother, the witch Zenobia (Margaret Whiting). Barely escaping an attack by three sword-wielding fire mutants (Harryhausen's stop-motion swordfights always seemed to get better with each passing film), Sinbad finds Kassim's sister and a baboon - Kassim, turned into such by Zenobia. To break Zenobia's spell, Sinbad and crew enlist a wizard, Master Malanthius and his daughter Dione (Taryn Power), and must sail for Hyperborea, a land at the North Pole immune to the polar region's frost. But Zenobia and Rafi are following, aided by a mechanical beast known as Minaton. This film features quite a bit of character animation by Harryhausen. His monsters have always had distinct personalities - only Harryhausen could make a rampaging Allosaur like Gwangi villainous and completely sympathetic all at once - but here he imbues them with ever greater warmth, not only in the baboon Kassim (the most chilling scene comes when the animated Baboon sees himself in a mirror, and is driven to grief. Some have criticized the scene because Kassim has known he was a baboon for a great deal of time, but it makes sense that he would still come to grief upon actually seeing himself in a mirror) but also in Trog, a prehistoric giant who "is as frightened of us as we of him," as Malanthius notes. Kassim and Dione befriend Trog, and when Kassim is finally liberated of Zenobia's spell, we feel genuine regret as Trog is killed by Zenobia, now taking the form of a Smilodon (the titular tiger). This battle is unusually gruesome, and ranks a close second to Gwangi vs. the styracosaur as Harryhausen's finest animated clash. An unusually high number of matte FX shots are used, adding nicely to the fantasy element of the film. In all, the film succeeds quite well.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Popcorn Fantasy Flick
Review: There are some movies that are not meant to be great art. They aim to be nothing more than a fun way to pass time and eat popcorn at the same time. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is one of those movies. Patrick Wayne is great as the stalwart sailor Sinbad as he fights on behalf of the lovely Princess Farah. Sinbad ventures forth on an epic voyage to find the cure for the spell cast upon Farah's brother, Prince Kassim by the wicked witch Zenobia. This is a most thrilling movie and is well suited for viewing by the entire family. If you just want to relax and have fun while eating popcorn, then this is a great movie for you.
Rating:
Summary: A disastrous failure in Ray Harryhausen movies.
Review: This film is not a Sinbad film. Ray's special effects are very dissapointing, because he just couldn't go farther in technology at the time the film was made in. The movie went on forever and was completely boring. The only person who made it good was Jane Seymore, with a very sexy look, but everything else was just a complete flop.
Rating: 
Summary: Great monsters, subpar everything else
Review: This is the weakest of the Ray Harryhausen/Charles H. Schneer fantasy series, which is still to say that it is pretty fun, and the kids will love it. But here the monsters have definitely overrun any semblence of plot, and the quality of almost every element of filmmaking aside from the stop-motion beasties falls far below the standards of the other films in this series. Even the monsters themselves are retreads of earlier wonders: the djinn are too much like the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, the Troglodyte is essentially a bi-ocular version of the cyclops in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and we've already seen giant bees (or hornets) in Mysterious Island. The monsters are also rather poorly motivated, simply appearing for the hell of it (why is the ancient temple in the polar regions guarded by a saber-tooth tiger? Why the metallic bull, and why doesn't he get a decent fight scene?). But when the creatures are on screen, the film is great fun. But it's so hard to overlook the acting, especially Patrick Wayne, a wooden and wonderless Sinbad, and Margaret Whiting as the villainess really should have been replaced by Terry Jones in "crazy Welsh woman" mode. That at least would have been funny. However, Patrick Troughton (a former Dr. Who) seems to be having a bit of fun in his goofy old man makeup. The photography is also surprisingly bland, and the sets look cheaper than the previous movies (ironic, since the budget on this one was a bit higher). The DVD transfer and widescreen framing actually tends to accentuate these shortcomings, but the crispness of the image is a tremendous improvement over the very blurry VHS tapes. It will never be anything more than the least of the great master's fantasy films, but it still has a charm to it that many films today lack. It's just so darned . . . innocent.
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