Amazons and Gladiators

Rating:
Summary: Pure Entertaining Fantasy
Review: This movie is O.K., beautiful girls, dastardly villains, good versus evil, fight for womens rights and against abuse/slavery, etc. A couple of fine fight scenes and the heroine isn't allmighty. All good points.

But (there's always a but), some poor interpretations damage the film; I'm not an historical purist, but enough is enough...in 60 A.D. Caesar and Brutus! Marcus Crassius hero of the punic wars (the last one ended on 146 B.C.), captured Spartacus (71 B.C.) and is "now" governor of some far away province (60 A.D.)!!!! Is he a Vampire?or some kind of immortal?? There are so many persons and events in Roman history that those blunders shouldn't happen. Look I'm not discussing vests, weapons and armor or even the idea of Amazons in the 1st century, only that minimal knowledge is required to make an historical action movie...Amazons and Gladiators could very well have the evil Hurzegtikastishan empire fighting the jokastinoras tribe of freedom fighters as background...the rome/romans of this film are as real as the Hurzegtikastishan.

Well, watch the movie but don't expect to learn anything historical...except the look of Roman Spears (Pilum), they are very good reconstructions. I give two stars because when I forgot about the anachronisms and mistakes, I enjoyed the show.

Rating:
Summary: Mildly interesting, little sex, Bergin's a real b...........
Review: This movie, which I think tries to marry the "Gladiator" idea; with the buxom heroine figures of movies like "Barbarian Queen" and other anti-male; pro-female, movies does so with limited success. Patrick Bergin, known for playing a right b.......d (you know what I mean); for example, in "Sleeping With The Enemy", is perfectly evil as the Roman Governor and Hiltz (since it's her first film) is moderately attractive as the female heroine (but limited in revealing her charms, for the above reason I guess). Mary Tamm (who many may remember [as Romana I] in the Tom Baker era of Dr. Who) is still a stunning looking woman (as the Amazon princess). It was a moderately interesting movie, but if one buys it, don't pay over $5.00 for it. (I bought a previewed copy and had to clean it three times with cd/dvd cleaner to get it to play all the way through.) Barbarian Queen with the late Lana Clarkson was better (though none of these movies are "cinema classics" by any stretch.

Rating:
Summary: Lithuanian sword and sandal
Review: This sword and sandal film was apparently made in Lithuania. The Baltic scenery, obvious from the many scenes set in forested areas, seems somewhat out of place in a Roman setting. The handful of sets made to represent the grandeur of Rome fall quite short of the mark.

The movie itself offers the usual sorts of entertainment found in sword and sandal flicks, sugar coated with a vaguely pop-feminist twist that seems incongruous given that the plot is pretty much standard. Your lead character must escape from cruel slavery and sexual danger with the aid of the Amazons, and then go back to confront her former master. This is the occasion for a fair number of orgies and badly choreographed hooch dancing sequences. A number of plot twists lie between our heroine and her final vengeance.

The undercurrent of sexual violence, the motifs of dominance and submission, that were always present in the classic Italian low-budget sword and sandal films are presented more explicitly in their latter-day imitations. This is either a step forward in delivering the sort of entertainment wanted, or a step backwards in taste and subtlety.

The bottom line is this is comparable to, but not as good, as -The Arena- a/k/a -Naked Warrior-. In that Seventies film, another Roman amazon gladiator film, Pam Grier's hooch dancing is much better. She also made a more convincing Amazon gladiator than the heroine of this film.

One gathers from the packaging of the film that they are trying to ride the coattails of -Gladiator-, the Oscar-winning remake of -Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire-. Those who expect something similar will be disappointed. Those who like old fashioned low-budget sword and sandal films might get a kick out of this.

Rating:
Summary: Lithuanian sword and sandal
Review: This sword and sandal film was apparently made in Lithuania. The Baltic scenery, obvious from the many scenes set in forested areas, seems somewhat out of place in a Roman setting. The handful of sets made to represent the grandeur of Rome fall quite short of the mark.

The movie itself offers the usual sorts of entertainment found in sword and sandal flicks, sugar coated with a vaguely pop-feminist twist that seems incongruous given that the plot is pretty much standard. Your lead character must escape from cruel slavery and sexual danger with the aid of the Amazons, and then go back to confront her former master. This is the occasion for a fair number of orgies and badly choreographed hooch dancing sequences. A number of plot twists lie between our heroine and her final vengeance.

The undercurrent of sexual violence, the motifs of dominance and submission, that were always present in the classic Italian low-budget sword and sandal films are presented more explicitly in their latter-day imitations. This is either a step forward in delivering the sort of entertainment wanted, or a step backwards in taste and subtlety.

The bottom line is this is comparable to, but not as good, as -The Arena- a/k/a -Naked Warrior-. In that Seventies film, another Roman amazon gladiator film, Pam Grier's hooch dancing is much better. She also made a more convincing Amazon gladiator than the heroine of this film.

One gathers from the packaging of the film that they are trying to ride the coattails of -Gladiator-, the Oscar-winning remake of -Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire-. Those who expect something similar will be disappointed. Those who like old fashioned low-budget sword and sandal films might get a kick out of this.