Red Sonia

[baumer]

DISCUSS

[IndustriousAngel]

CFor me, Red Sonja has always been the true sequel to Conan the Barbarian ... at least it's better than Conan the Destroyer (most films are, really).Red Sonja has few qualities - landscapes, Morricone, Nielsen+Schwarzenegger - and lots of embarrassing scenes (among them a swordfight and an ending kiss between Brigitte and Arnie, both scenes ridiculously bad) - and the sidekicks are simply horrible. The li'l smart-alecing brat ("Prince Tarn") is even more horrible than Falkon.I'd love to see a hard R-rated sexy Sonja film done by a competent pulp director but I guess we'll have to wait rather a long time for such a miracle

[BiffMan]

Quickly, before I've come to my senses after Hercules in New York, let's try to cram in Red Sonja. This is not a good movie. My memories of this movie are... unpleasant. Bridgite is not just a bad actress, she is a breathtakingly bad actress. She was crazy-hot back then, there's no getting around that, but this is what happens when you base your casting choice for lead actress on a magazine ad. At least this makes Conan the Destroyer seem pretty solid by comparison.

Arnold is decent in this, and it's one of his first opportunities to really turn on the charm, but the movie is such a black hole of despair, he can't really carry it on strength of personality alone. He's got a great smile though, and he's starting to look far more comfortable on screen compared to his previous outings. Who knows, this guy may even turn into some kind of Hollywood star some day...

I can't help but wonder if this is the quality of movie the first Conan would have turned into with anyone less skilled and passionate than John Milius at the helm. Richard Fleischer may have had his day and turned out some good work in the 50s-70s, but IMDB confirms my suspicion that his career had to be over after the back to back body blows of Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja. Milius took completely green actors and made magic with them. Fleischer... not so much. I'm not sure how many times he would have had to shoot a scene to get a marginally acceptable performance out of Bridgite, but it really doesn't look like he tried.

I can't believe I just watched Hercules and Red Sonja in the same day. Mama always said I was "special"

Ahnold Quotient - 7

He's hamming it up quite nicely through most of this and there some wonderfully goofy expressions during the battle sequences in particular. The "mating ritual" in the forest was a little much, but still not going completely over-the-top just yet.

Rewatchability - No way

It was brave of me to give it another go to see if I had misjudged this all these years and perhaps it's actually a diamond in the rough. It. Is. Not. Good. I'll can't say I'll never watch it again, but it's hard to imagine the circumstances under which that would happen. I would presume alcohol, betting, and/or memory loss would have to be involved.