SnoopyStyle It's 1936. After his father's death in South America, Doc Savage returns from the Arctic Circle to New York City. He and his friends, The Fabulous Five, are attacked by a native warrior who slips off a skyscraper. They set off to solve his father's death. The quest leads to the criminal Captain Seas and a long lost Mayan tribe.Doc Savage is a pulp magazine adventurer starting from the 30s. He continues into the modern age and this tries to give this character his 30s adventure. The production is not good enough to dress up the outside street scenes to fit the times. There are too many modern locations. It's all rather sad and cheap. It is better off staying away from anything close to modern. It is unwieldy and clunky old style. The lead Ron Ely is a stiff old Hollywood B hero with his bright teethy smile. The special effects consist of glowing cartoon snakes that attack. They're not anything good. This is not campy and fun like Flash Gordon. It certainly doesn't have a good soundtrack. Its backbone is stiff and none of it is fun. It's not even so bad that it's funny. It's just old and stiff and tiresome.

Scott LeBrun "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze" adapts the fiction of Kenneth Robeson for the screen with engaging results. It's a harmless, gloriously goofy throwback to 1930s era pulp nonsense. Clearly it's NOT meant to be taken all that seriously, even though most of the cast do a fine job of maintaining poker faces (which is usually the right way to play this sort of material). It's spirited, lively stuff, played to perfection by the talented actors and crew.Ron Ely, star of the 1966-68 'Tarzan' TV series, makes for an appealing hero as Doc Savage, a jack of all trades who goes on various globe trotting adventures with his team The Fabulous Five: Paul Gleason as Long Tom, William Lucking as Renny, Michael Miller as Monk, Eldon Quick as Johnny, and Darrell Zwerling as Ham. Each man has his own area of expertise, and they're always ready to help out their friend Doc. Doc receives word that his father has died and left a precious natural resource to him, but also comes to believe that the old man may have been murdered. Our merry band of protagonists are soon doing battle with greedy, nefarious Captain Seas (Paul Wexler) and his minions.Fans of the literature excoriate this movie as an adaptation, but it's great fun if one doesn't have that previous association. It's often quite amusing, and is suitable for family audiences, if not particularly politically correct. The oddest but funniest touch: one of the villains, the sniveling Don Rubio Gorro (Bob Corso), sleeps in a constantly rocking crib, tucked into a fetal position! The Sousa march based music score is absolutely priceless, and it's hard not to sing along with that theme.Some of the principal creative talent are old pros at this sort of thing: George Pal ("The War of the Worlds" '53, "The Time Machine" '60) is producer and co-writer, and Michael Anderson ("Around the World in 80 Days", "Logan's Run") is director. And the look for the picture is just right. It would have fit in just fine during the days of old time movie serials.The acting is generally agreeable. Wexler is a delicious if not very threatening villain. Miller provides the most blatant comedy relief as the chemist who dotes on a pet piglet. Pamela Hensley ("Rollerball", 'Matt Houston'), Robyn Hilton ("Blazing Saddles"), and Janice Heiden provide appreciable eye candy. Appearing in bits are Michael Berryman (in his film debut) as a coroner and Robert Tessier as a henchman. And an unbilled Paul Frees is the narrator.At the end there's an advertisement for a sequel, although no sequel ever got made.One of my favorite touches? Doc and Captain Seas implementing various fighting methods during their climactic showdown, with accompanying text on screen.Eight out of 10.

Stretchington72 Well if you were a 7 year old boy in 1982 this was just about the best thing ever we used to have doc savage parties every time it came on TV and prayed there would be a sequel . You see 7 year old don't see the cracks and the campiness having said that from a 7 year old I give it 10/10 ,sadly I did something I should have never done I went back as an adult and it was disappointing to say the least they say you never should and leave things in the past so ass an adult I give it 5/10 and that's only through pure nostalgiaI would however urge people to check out the 150 or so books written in the 30's through till the 50's they are a hoot and actually predict some things that came true latter on

HaemovoreRex Having read many of the other reviews for this film on the IMDb there is ostensibly a consensus amongst purists that this film is nothing like the books upon which it is based. Upon this point I cannot comment, having never actually read any of the protagonists adventures previously. However, what I can say with certainty, is that it strikes me that many of the said reviewers must have surely undergone a sense of humour bypass; Let's be honest here - this film is just so much fun!OK…..so I must concede the point that the film apparently is not representative of the character/s but let's put this into a clear perspective…..do the same individuals who are carping on about this film also bemoan the fact that the classic 1960's Batman series does not remain faithful to the original DC comic book character? Or perhaps is there STILL unrest in same persons that the 1980 film version of Flash Gordon was too much of a departure from the original series?The point is, yes this film is incredibly camp but that's precisely its charm!Former Tarzan, Ron Ely plays the eponymous hero in this (and bears more than a passing resemblance to Gary Busey to boot!) and is backed up by a great supporting cast who all look to be having a ball with their respective roles. Also look out for a very brief but highly welcome appearance by horror movie favourite Michael Berryman.Best scene? Far too many to choose from but check out the hilarious facial expressions adopted by the waiter when Savage and his men commit the ultimate faux pas of ordering coke, lemonade and milk at a formal occasion! Also the often noted scene near the end of the film wherein Savage tackles his nemesis Captain Seas utilising various martial arts disciplines which are labelled on screen! – Priceless!Simply put, the film doesn't take itself at all seriously and is all the more fun for it. Great fun from start to finish! (and you'll be singing the John Phillip Sousa adapted theme song for days afterwards guaranteed!)