The Black Stallion Returns

Rating:
Summary: Nice.
Review: 'The Black Stallion Returns' is a nice movie about a boy trying to retrieve his horse from a group of Arabs who feel the horse belongs to them. The movie was made on a low budget and one can tell the scenes in Saudia Arabia is not really that country, but rather the United States. It has an innocence to it that makes it enjoyable though.

Rating:
Summary: The Beauty
Review: As a child, I sat up and dreamt about this beautiful horse and watched the movie over and over again. Both The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion returns are awesome. I recently bought both movies to share with my children. This movie is a wonderful family film and a film for those who love those beautiful Arabian Horses as I do. Enjoy! :-)

Rating:
Summary: The Beauty
Review: As a child, I sat up and dreamt about this beautiful horse and watched the movie over and over again. Both The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion returns are awesome. I recently bought both movies to share with my children. This movie is a wonderful family film and a film for those who love those beautiful Arabian Horses as I do. Enjoy! :-)

Rating:
Summary: Well done.
Review: As kids, my cousin and I spent two hours laughing at this movie and making fun of it. Alec does some incredibly.. well.. hard to understand things -- like running after the people who are very obviously stealing his horse and getting their attention by yelling "stop". Right, like they're gonna do that.

The book, too, differs greatly in the telling of this story, but personally, I think that this one's better. In the book version you get the whole planned trip to try to buy a horse off of ben Ishak, but here it's just something that Alec has to do to get his horse back, he does anything he can, motivated by his love. No doubt the book conveys his emotions too, but I think the movie improved upon the theme.

I have seen this movie literally hundreds of times, and it still gives me chills to this day, more and more as I get older. The plot isn't that mystifying, and except for a few minor surprise twists don't really make for a suspenseful watch, but if you just watch it for the other aspects, you won't be disappointed. The race scene is unquestionably one of the high points. Others are the one where Alec almost reunites with his horse, the one where he actually does, etc. The music too... More than just touching.

It's just a beautiful movie overall. Only complaint is that you get to see too little of Cass Ole..

Rating:
Summary: Well done.
Review: As kids, my cousin and I spent two hours laughing at this movie and making fun of it. Alec does some incredibly.. well.. hard to understand things -- like running after the people who are very obviously stealing his horse and getting their attention by yelling "stop". Right, like they're gonna do that.

The book, too, differs greatly in the telling of this story, but personally, I think that this one's better. In the book version you get the whole planned trip to try to buy a horse off of ben Ishak, but here it's just something that Alec has to do to get his horse back, he does anything he can, motivated by his love. No doubt the book conveys his emotions too, but I think the movie improved upon the theme.

I have seen this movie literally hundreds of times, and it still gives me chills to this day, more and more as I get older. The plot isn't that mystifying, and except for a few minor surprise twists don't really make for a suspenseful watch, but if you just watch it for the other aspects, you won't be disappointed. The race scene is unquestionably one of the high points. Others are the one where Alec almost reunites with his horse, the one where he actually does, etc. The music too... More than just touching.

It's just a beautiful movie overall. Only complaint is that you get to see too little of Cass Ole..

Rating:
Summary: Good movie, but not quite as good as the book. . .
Review: As with the first Black Stallion movie, I probably would have liked this one better if I hadn't read the book first. There are lots of things that are changed -- for example, the setting for the Black's home is changed to North Africa instead of Saudi Arabia, and Alec ends up going off on the journey by himself, instead of with Henry and Mr. Volence, the owner of one of the horses who ran against Alec in the match race. But these are changes I can handle. The one thing that really irks me is the way Abu Ishak was portrayed. In the book, Abu Ishak was a pretty nice guy. He offered Alec a reward when he came to claim the Black -- legally and tactfully -- and understood how much Alec loved the Black. When Alec and his travelling companions find Abu Ishak's home, Abu Ishak warmly welcomes them. In the film, however the same character is a total jerk. He ruthlessly snatches the Black away after setting the Ramsay's barn on fire to create a diversion, and even ties Alec up at the pier to stop him from following them. And when Alec treks all the way across the desert to find him, Abu Ishak only allows Alec to stay after Alec coerces him into it by appealing to his conscience. Only at the end at the film does he show something resembling kindness. The ending in the film was OK, but I like the book's ending better, when Ishak promises Alec the Black's first colt. I suppose the directors wanted to make sure there wouldn't be another sequel. Cass-Ole's presence was about the only thing that made this film very appealing. I give it two stars.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to the original, but not bad for younger viewers
Review: Certainly this is a far cry from the magnificent, magical dream-poem that is the original Black Stallion movie. More of a standard animal/adventure film for younger viewers and if you think about it that way, it's not too bad. Most of the original cast (except Mr. Rooney) return and it was made in a timely enough way that Kelly Reno is still relatively young and charming -- a really non-actorish child actor and part of the whole appeal. I read both books as a little tyke, but didn't remember the second book too well. It seems to me that many of the details were changed but the general idea of the Black being kidnapped back to his original home in an Arabic country is retained.

Alec's adventures chasing his horse are appealing and interesting, and so is the climactic race at the end. But the story just peters out, and we never see Alec return home or what he does without his beloved horse now. (You do have to wonder in a kid's film why there is no resolution with his poor mom (Terri Garr), who had to be frantic when her young son mysteriously disappears for about three months.)

I applied the "11 year old girl who is horse crazy" test to this film, and decided it would definitely pass. That is who it is really made for, despite the male protagonist (and there is a girl rider in the plot, although she gets the heave-ho in favor of the hero). And that girl (me, about a million years ago) would have enjoyed this, although not as much as the original. It would have held my attention and I would have wanted to view it several times.

If your children loved the first film, this much more prosaic sequel would probably be of interest. Just don't expect great art.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the watch, but....
Review: Definitely more action-adventure than the first, and not NEARLY so dreamlike or magical. Still, it has a charm and overall quality of it's own. Kelly Reno's acting skills are vastly improved, Cass Ole is the same drop-dead magnificent beastie, but where's Mickey Rooney?

Rating:
Summary: The Stallion Returns!!!
Review: Four years after the first film, l983 would usher in this sequel to the The Black Stallion, and Kelly Reno would once again be the one who rescues the Arabian stallion from other thrilling captivities. There are more horses, exotic locations, and thrilling plots here than meets the eye, and the story gets so much better. But of course, it is "Cass-ole" who steals the show - the beautiful black Arabian stallion.

A might fine sequel to a great original film. Highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: The Black returns to his homeland.
Review: I watched this movie in the theater when it first came out. It was a great movie. I cried when Abu ben Ishak claimed the stallion from Alec, while Alec was trying to encourage the stallion to gallop away, who refused to move. The book is much different from the movie but both book and movie are great to read and to watch. I would have liked to see Abu go to Alec's home and explain about Shetan(the Black's true Arabian name) being his and that the stallion was stolen from him. (somewhat similar to what the book did.) Instead they had them kidnap the stallion, wrong thing to do, if Alec was smart he would have turned back to the cops that must have been at the house while the barn was burning down and told them that someone was stealing his horse. But he didn't. What he did was run after the thieves and get into the trailer with the Black. But they must have stopped once or twice on the way to the waterfront werehouse. Alex could have easily have escaped with the Black before they reached the werehouse. The whole movie was great, a few things were not by the book but I guess that's how Hollywood wanted the movie to be. I still love both movie and book.