Sinbad and the Minotaur

The movie is no "Lord of the Rings," of course, but given the constraints of budget and more limited application of SFX, it is fairly acceptable, quite watchable, and better than the majority of recent low-budget productions that one can see on the SyFy channel these days. There is humor and deliberate irony of classic myth, as well as self-conscious parody at times, which, I believe, goes quite well to disperse any attempts to take things all too seriously. The acting is also acceptable - this particular representation of Sinbad, for example, just like Beowulf, is supposed to be a blend between the arrogance, yet zesty adventure-loving nature of an Indiana Jones and the ridiculous ego-mania of a Narcissus - and the lead delivers both reasonably well. Do not expect a great adventure tale; yet, the movie is fair and definitely watchable...

Sinbad (Manu Bennett) steals the Chronicles of the King Minos from the camp of the evil sorcerer Al-Jibar (Steven Grives) with the location of the golden head of the Colossus of Rhodes. He also saves the slave Tara (Holly Brisley) and brings her to his ship.

Sinbad sails with Tara and his crew to the Island of Minos and they meet a village of descents of Minos. They learn that the treasure is guarded by the Minotaur in a labyrinth and Sinbad gets rid of the beast. When they are celebrating, Al-Jibar arrives in the village with the flesh eater Seif (Jared Robinson) and his army, and demands the scroll for him. Out of the blue, the villagers turn into beasts and attack the outsiders. Who will survive?

"Sinbad and the Minotaur" is a lame movie with a good story and awful acting and costumes. The non-charismatic Manu Bennett looks like Rambo or a marine with his hair cut and his acting is limited to grimaces. Lily Brown is histrionic in the role of the priestess Arianna. The villains Al-Jibar and Seif are sinister and Holly Brisley is very sexy. Despite the low-budget, the acting and costumes could be better. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Sinbad e o Minotauro" ("Sinbad and the Minotaur")

If they spent more than $100 making this they were robbed. The script is awful, the acting abysmal and the sets hilarious. My advice, don't waste valuable time watching this tripe. I cant honestly think of anything that was worth while watching. It is supposed to be based on the myth of the Minotaur, but the lead actor is so bad at acting. I have to mention the Kiwi accent of the male star that it's hard to take anything seriously right from the start. I'm surprised that SyFy channel even bothered to air this. Even the props were funny, but most of all was the plot. I've never sat through so much trash in all my life.

or horns coming out of your forehead.

Aladdin's mission is basically that: find the lost treasure of Minos (the Colossus' head), and in the interim, overcome a few perils, or should I say "perils", such as an evil dark mage and his human fighter/horror necro ghoul, an island whose inhabitants turn into would-be 'minotaurians' from some kind of curse, some thugs here and there also intent on stopping him, and of course, the infamous minotaur, a CG-created enormous bull that bellows and stomps its way through a cave called a labyrinth (of course), flaming red eyes and no other grotesque features other than a hideous head and ginormous horns.

But to Aladdin, all these are just "details, details", as he often interjects during the movie. I don't ever recall thinking of Aladdin as a throw-all-caution-to-the wind guy, strutting into all kinds of 'unknown' dangers, and when entering the 'labyrinth', (careful! the minotaur!), "details, details". About half-way through the movie, just sitting there dumbly watching this, I am wondering where this is all going, or what exactly is this supposed to be. For a fairy-tale story, it falls pitifully short. For special effects, it is not that highly budgeted an adventure. For teaching some lessons or morals, nothing either. Appealing to an adult audience - not unless you've got less than half a brain. For children, some parts maybe, but it was much too violent and gory for a young audience (ripping off body parts and horns going right through and breaking off). The story was also poorly scripted and acted out, and I say this, not because it had to be a highly paid or budgeted film, but because it lacked substance and imagination.

How many movies have I seen throughout the years, seemingly uninspiring and old story-based, but made with such dedication and inspiration, you fail to notice they're old? Way back, even, in the days when, as a kid, I was mesmerized by 'Jason and the Argonauts', 'Clash of Titans', 'Sinbad the Sailor' (and there were a host of these with similar themes), many of them not big movies, but most left something, which today, sadly, is lacking in many of such.

No need to say more, I believe. You get the picture.

I watched Sinbad and the Minotaur with nothing else better to do, but while I was dubious of whether it would work it turned out to be worse than I expected. Production values-wise, it's a cheap-looking film, with costumes reminiscent of bad fancy dress, scenery that is not authentic at all and camera work that looks flat and rushed. I have seen worse effects in my lifetime, but although I do realise it was low-budget Sinbad and the Minotaur doesn't in my view look as though a lot of effort went into it. The minotaur has some menace but is too much of a giant bull rather than half-man/half-bull from mythology. The dialogue is terribly cheesy, but hilariously so at the same time, and while the idea was good the story was dull with no genuine thrills, imagination, fun and suspense and everything screams of being done before in adventure/fantasy films and better. The direction is sloppy, and the acting is pretty atrocious, with Manu Bennett having none of the charisma needed for the role of Sinbad. In fairness though, the characters are not interesting at all and have no life to them, the villain is especially flat. In conclusion, an awful film but if you watch it for novelty value you might get some enjoyment out of it. 1/10 Bethany Cox