Sinbad and the Minotaur

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.

There used to be A-Movies and B-Movies. This is a Z-Movie. After watching the first half, I decided to bail. Because I needed to brush my teeth and that was much more interesting than any masochistic urge to continue hurting my eyes with this tripe.

In all seriousness, this was made in my home town, and I would dearly love to offer some support to our ailing industry. But to be brutally honest - after the embarrassing travesty of another recent Australian film - "Tomorrow, When the War Began" - I thought things couldn't get worse. Well they have. Much worse in fact. I don't know where to begin in trying to offer a sensible review: perhaps suffice to say try and think of the worst movie you have seen in your life. Well this is a new candidate for that title. I truly can't think of a single positive aspect to this movie. It's about Sinbad???

Maybe...just maybe, your 4 year old might like this on DVD.

So unless you work for the studio and are forced to watch this, please save your time and money and do something more productive with your time.

1/10

Compared to the Sinbad movies I watched when I was younger this one is totally boring. Not much of a plot and the acting and action parts were not very good. I think that trying to make more Sinbad movies is alright but they need to use better graphics and get better actors. The creatures were obviously fake and not very entertaining. The bad guy is such an obvious phony. If I could compare it to maybe the Mummy movies or even Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones. This movie does not even come close to being as good as them. The SFX in this movie cannot compare with some of the other adventure movies out on the market right now. It was a good try, but didn't even come close to the other movies. Slightly entertaining and helped to kill time, nothing else to do but watch it until I was ready to watch the other movie I will be watching later.

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

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")