UofSciFi by some of the reviews I've read, it looks like it doesn't take too much to entertain many of you.This was another one of Universal Studios' late 1970's attempts to throw another out a sci-fi adventure to ride the profiting coat tails of the Star Wars phenomenon that was still red hot. (Other big budget attempts by Universal Studios to ride the coat tails of Star Wars were Battlestar Galactica & Buck Rodgers in the 25 Century- of which both were double released as both a Television Show and Theatrical Movie). The only thing that Univeral Studios did different with Flash Gordon was that they never crossed it over from the big screen and into a TV series like they had done with Buck Rodgers & Battlestar Galactica.Queen's music soundtrack is as silly as this movie.The Good news is that I really believe that somewhere down the road (several years from now) someone is going to re-do this into a major big budget remake, with glorious space battles, great visual effects and lot and lots of action....The Bad new is that was what this 1980 version was supposed to be exactly what I described that the future version should be... and this movie fails on many many levels.The acting is terrible, the plot is okay(could have been better) the action is comical, music stinks and the special effects are the equivalent to a low budget film. - What were they thinking??So what was Universal Studios thinking?? - well I already answered that question with my first paragraph, they(Universal Studios) were thinking that had to get a sci-fi adventure film out into the market as quick as possible to ride the coat tails of the success of Star Wars an turn over a quick and easy profit, Universal Studios only purchased rights to the use name Flash Gordon because of its name recognition (they had done the same thing with Buck Rodgers in 1979)In 1980 Flash Gordon was not the first time in the late 70's/early 80's that Universal Studios tried to ride the coat tails of Star Wars. What is interesting is that it would be their last attempt to do it. After Flash Gordon was released in 1980 it was apparent that Universal Studios were never going to have their own Star Wars.Universal Studios attempts to ride the coat tails of the success of Star Wars1978 Battlestar Galactica (perhaps their best and most noble effort- in some ways it was better than star wars)1979 Buck Rodger in the 25th Century (pure plot less outer space disco)1980 Flash Gordon (you already know)1980 Galactica 1980 (why, O lord Why did they make this god awful show?)1981 Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century (it was revised for season two, only aired on the BBC in Great Britain - it was canceled in the U.S. in 1979

crossd-91035 Flash Gordon is a peace of Predictive Programming propaganda under the guise of a Camp cult movie. It is absolutely saturated in Masonic symbolism, probably more than any other movie. Predictive programming is used by the Establishment to get a story into the minds of Children for later use when they're adults. The Flash Gordon story is about a God like Alien threat to earth. He visits earth with catastrophes and Mysteries, "Strange Craters in the Wilderness" etc, if man suspects it's the work of Aliens, Ming will destroy the earth. The Movie Starts with a summary of various catastrophes the Alien menace is creating, "Hot Hail", "Meteor Storm", "Earthquake", "Volcanic Eruption" etc, and Air disasters when Flash's plane crashes after his pilots are sucked out of a smashed canopy. We then are introduced to "Hans Zarkov", he's a rogue ex-NASA scientist who's been trying to warn the public of the approaching "Alien Threat", but is ignored.This story was predictive programming for the Hoax Alien Threat, which Bill Cooper warned about over 20 years ago. He initially believed in Alien visitation because of secret documents he'd been shown while in the Navy, but gradually realised he'd been deceived. He warned of the establishment's "Alien Agenda", how every story of Alien Visitation, from the Roswell Hoax onwards, was a clever propaganda campaign disseminated through the establishment's media, while at the same time called "A cover up". Some cover up. The Roswell "secret" was first handed to the worlds controlled media under orders from the Roswell base commander. And it's been the same ever since, propaganda disseminated until Area 51 became the most widely known so called secret military base in the world. Cooper warned before he was killed this was to justify a one world totalitarian state, a plan called "MajestyTwelve", in which the world would be given a Messiah Savior global dictator who'd secretly be a puppet of 12 members of the ruling class.Of course black project craft which the establishment's media labels "Alien UFOs", are just one aspect of what was required for the deception to be believed, and it's taken a long time to put the plan into action. Since the Mid 2000s it's been clear how they'll be going about creating the threat, black project created Asteroid Impact explosions and Tsunamis, fires and other catastrophes. Tianjin, Fukushima, the Turkish and Greenland Tsunamis, these are just some of the events they've created, which eventually through staged fake "Government leaks" they'll claim were caused by a hostile Alien race directing various sizes of Meteorite to earth. They'll be a variety of sizes of events, from fires that the media will portray as "mysterious", that eventually they'll say were caused by small hot meteorites (hot hail), houses being demolished by "Gas Explosions", sometimes where the gas company will deny the house had a supply, to earthquakes and Tsunamis. But these events are bound to get much larger, the imaginary enemy is going to have to bite hard to create the elite's "Utopian world".This is Ming in the predictive programming, you see people will see the world going crazy, get a sense of great unease that something is happening they're not being told about, but the events will seem familiar, they've seen them before. And through these Childhood memories from Sci-Fi of old, they draw a link to an "Alien" Bogeyman. And what of Dr Hans Zarkov? The Zarkov character is played in "real life" by Dr John Brandenburg, a "rogue ex NASA scientist" who claimed to have discovered in 2014 that there was once a war on Mars that destroyed an alien race, that this was caused by another Alien Race which he somehow knew was still out there, and that this God Like Alien bogeyman from the void could threaten earth. Another event to trigger those carefully created childhood memories, so the public comes to the "Alien" conclusion in a way that will seem like it was their conclusion alone, rather than one given to them long ago. Brandenburg's Mars propaganda story was actually predicted by Bill Cooper over 20 years ago. The deception has a staged fake cover up. Like the Roswell Hoax, people believe more readily if they think Authority hid the "truth", it makes the lie seem like powerful knowledge they are enlightened to believe in, even though the establishment's media has disseminated this secret until the whole world has learnt the lore of the Roswell Hoax. At the same time Authority appears to be "protecting us from the truth" "The End?" nope it's just started

Thunderin' Tim Reviews So the other day my buddy and I got together for our monthly beer, cola, pizza and movie night. After regaling him with stories of my utter failure in life, work and love we selected this movie. I had never seen it, though I knew the Queen song of course, and for him it had been quite a while. It was.....quite the experience, to put it mildly. This flick is utterly bonkers. The acting is atrocious at times, especially the lead Hawkman (yes you read that correctly) who clearly doesn't take it serious; the set design and costumes are way, way over the top (it looks like colorblind aliens are holding a gay pride/carnival where everyone looks as ridiculous as is humanly...well...I guess...alienly possible; the editing and directing falls and fails and flails all over the place; the plot, if I may use that word ever so boldly, is so full with plot holes large enough to swallow a pyramid and coincidences that makes you want to throw stuff at the screen.Yet......is this movie a prime example of "so bad it becomes good again"? You know what, I'm bound to think it is. I was fully entertained and flabbergasted along the way. You can see what's going to happen from a mile away but for once it didn't bother me. It's just so over the top, harmless, trashy, cliché ridden, camp, low budget with big dreams that I cannot help but approve of this movie.Sure, a few annoyances. That may seem an endless list for a movie like this but since I like campy movies and its worst attributes actually make you laugh the most and that's never a bad thing, only a few things stand out.Flash is such a goodie, softie, plastic hero it doesn't always work in his favor. I also didn't like how basically everyone (Flash, the Emperor, the princess, Dale) all fall in love within two minutes. The movie makes it seem (I don't know the comics) as if Flash and Dale are total strangers, meeting on the plane, yet she professes her love for him almost immediately. The Emperor falls for Dale the second he sees her. The Princess, well, she kisses just about everyone, but she's Ming's daughter and nearly engaged, but one look at Flash's Goldilocks and she aids a revolution. I also didn't care much for the mad scientist guy, who basically kidnaps them but also forms a strong bond; who isn't the slightest bit amazed at the alien cultures but does seem to feel superior; who gets an extremely high dose of brainwash that does nothing without any explanation.I also would have liked a little more Queen since they took the music department under their wings. I like the titular song but we get little else. Oh yeah, for some reason the aliens play the Bridal March but it's the Brian May version.Richard O'Brien is severely underused. Max von Sydow appears, half way through the movie, to have decided he doesn't want to be there anymore. I also didn't really care for Timothy Dalton's character's sudden turn to Flash's side. Some scenes appear to be missing, most noticeably the capture of the Princess by the general guy (though he is pretty cool, sort of Doctor Doom's gay cousin).Worst of all is, of course, the American Football scene. The chapter is even called just that, making it the odd one out in a series of bombastic chapter titles. It's actually slightly embarrassing seeing him make a play as if one the field, and even more embarrassing that all of Ming's subordinate leaders seem to help him. Hawkman again does worse here, disabling people and then looking innocently away, even though it's blatantly obvious, utterly without motivation, completely out of the blue, and rather ridiculous to oppose the Emperor openly and then do all but whistle innocently. CONCLUSIONWell it was definitely an experience and I must say I laughed or goggled most of the time. Sure there are more problems than I could count and sometimes I hoped Flash would meat his Maker, but this movie almost gleefully bathes in campy nonsense and as such cannot really be judged by the same standards as normal movies, if there is such a thing. In the end, even if it comes rather too swift, I did enjoy it more than I disliked it, and I was glad to have watched it...I guess. Flawed beyond even what Ed Wood would consider a bad movie it has a harmless charm, and attracts through sheer and colorful weirdness. In conclusion, I feel this movie should be on every serious movie buff's menu, just so you can see for yourself what happens when a flimsy script, horrible acting, charming chaos, bight colors and a one-song soundtrack meet in a drug induced delirium in a misty back alley and is then put on a disk for your pleasure. An objective review would conclude with a 2/10 but I'm not about the delicate details of movie making, I review solely on the basis of how much it either moved or amused me. It didn't move me, but it also didn't move me closer to my inevitable suicide. An experience. 7/10

dglink Colorful, silly fun, at times campy, Mike Hodges's 1980 "Flash Gordon" is among those movies that are less than the sum of their parts. Made on shoe-string budgets with C-picture performers and crew for young undemanding viewers, the original 1930's Flash Gordon serials are unintentionally funny to adults today. To recapture the innocence and naivete of those movies with a big budget and trained actors is a difficult task, although Hodges's "Flash Gordon" makes a decent attempt. Lorenzo Semple's screenplay tracks the original serials fairly well; Flash and Dale Arden are taken aboard Doctor Hans Zarkov's spacecraft and flown to the planet Mongo, where they battle Emperor Ming the Merciless to save the Earth. Semple's script has enough classic bad dialog to satisfy seekers of camp; "I love you Flash, but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth." However, the difference between Semple's script and the original series is that Semple knew he was writing bad dialog, while the writers of the serial were unintentionally hilarious.That difference in intention also applies to the actors; Buster Crabbe and company played the serials dead-pan straight, and those in the remake who play their parts equally straight come off best. The under-demanding role of Flash requires the skills of a Razzie Award Winning thespian, and, Sam J. Jones won a Razzie nomination for his work herein. Although not a super hero in the modern sense, the blonde hunk, who sports nothing but leather trunks in one scene, physically fills the role, and Jones manages to deliver his lines with a convincing lack of conviction as the dim, but well meaning Flash. However, the movie's scene-stealer is Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless; appropriately garbed and made-up as the evil emperor, Von Sydow plays the role with majesty and menace, which is all the more fun. Unfortunately, Topol as Doctor Zarkov, does not follow Von Sydow's example and winks and smiles as the mad scientist, telegraphing to viewers that he is in on the joke. But Brian Blessed as the winged Prince Vultan, Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin, and, especially, the delicious Peter Wyngarde as Klytus deliver their lines as though penned by the Bard himself. Although Mariangela Melato is a memorable Kala, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden should have been in the running for a Razzie alongside Jones, which is intended as a compliment.Besides Von Sydow, the film's other scene-stealer is designer Danilo Donati, who provided the lavish Fellini-esque costumes and sets. While Donati's work tends to emphasize red and gold, which may not be to everyone's taste, his outlandish designs are as entertaining as anything on display and certainly light years beyond those of the 1930's serials. If Donati or another anonymous designer created the Art-Deco spaceships, he or she too deserves kudos as do the creators of the appropriately tacky and obvious special effects, which beautifully evoke the primitive work of the 1930's serials. As contemporary and important as the art direction is the pulsating score by Queen that punctuates the action and enhances the excitement. While "Flash Gordon" is not the high camp perhaps intended, the film has a cult following and enough outstanding attributes to satisfy main-stream audiences. Led by Max Von Sydow's iconic Ming the Merciless, Queen's pounding music, and Danilo Donati's dazzling designs, "Flash Gordon" may not be to everybody's taste, but should be savored by all at least once, just for the sheer fun of it all.