L'incredibile viaggio di Captain Drake

This SyFy Channel TV movie is an attempt to mix the life story of Sir Francis Drake, that heroic Brit who defeated the Spanish Armada, with some old-fashioned fantasy heroics along the lines of a Sinbad movie or JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. The resulting concoction is a silly mess of bad acting, poor plotting, and the usual excruciating CGI effects that the SyFy channel deliver.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. I love all the old Harryhausen movies so something made as a tribute to them sounded good. Unfortunately, THE IMMORTAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN DRAKE is just too cheap to really work. The ships and sets are never convincing and the hammy actors in support are very poor indeed. Adrian Paul is awful too, particularly his broad farmer's accent which keeps drifting all over the place and had me cringing every time I heard it. The usual gamut of sea monsters and basilisks and the like turn up at every opportunity but the action is schlocky and will only be enjoyed by those in a very forgiving mood.

I gave this movie a 7 out of 10. Whats to like, Adrian Paul devours this role and has fun with it something rare for him to play a comedic action role and he seems to be enjoying every minute. The Dialogue for the SyFy channel is a few steps above the usual as are many of the production values some have been mentioned by other reviewers. No this isn't the multi-million dollar romp of a Capatain Jack not at all but this is Captain Drake so a few things look a bit fake but on the other hand some things look great. David Flores has directed a few B-Movies and been on the production staff of a few others he is beginning to mature if you ask me as a director of these types of movies its not always about the budget its about the creativity in how you use that budget. Realizing this movie at best had a 1.5 - 3 million dollar budget is whats important how much can you do on a shoestring. These movies take imagination and the duel someone else mentioned is really well done and stylish. Some of todays best directors came from these low budget bonanazas like Sam Raimi, Wes craven, heck John Carpenter sitll makes lots of B Movies hie latest the Ward was way better than Sucker Punch. So I have hope for David Flores and recommend this movie that its quiet obvious to me he had fun making the charm the little touches of style and flare. I liked it, and its a step above most films on the SyFy network. Now would I buy it on DVD maybe if its in the discount bin.

Well, don't agree with the 1-star reviewer - it is all in expectations. If you expected a first class SciFi Fantasy, why then this is not "Willow", or "The Fellowship of the Ring". If all you expected is a good "B" movie, this passes the time, and the dialog is, for the genre, erudite - vide the comments and inscription on the scene of the "Tomb of Caesarion"!!! The by-play between Drake and his daughter was a nice touch.

There are numerous mythological references - again, if you like that sort of thing, suspect older viewers will - which fold into the tale, Sandovate is certainly a satisfactory villain, and one tends to be interested in the characters. The one lamentable scene was the Turkish chase, if you are going to do tongue-in-cheek, do it with verve.

crew should be better in the sequel.

I wasn't expecting much watching The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake, but got a little better than I expected. I hate most of the SyFy originals, but found this one of their more tolerable efforts. The costumes and locations are great, the editing is a cut above the choppy feel I've often seen, the music score is grandiose and often epic, much better than the sluggish and over-bearing scores of most SyFy movies, the sword-fighting is decent and not as clumsy as I thought it would and the performances from Adrian Paul and Wes Ramsey. The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake does have its flaws though as well, namely the artificial-looking effects, the stilted and rather trite dialogue, scenes that aimed to have a tongue-in-cheek vibe but came across as lacking verve like the Turkish chase, clichéd characters and some of the other actors mumble through their lines. The story was a good idea to go on and had moments where it was crisply-paced and exciting, but others where it was rather dull and predictable. In conclusion, uneven but compared to other SyFy efforts it is reasonably entertaining. 5/10 Bethany Cox

1) The accents were cringe-worthily bad. I wasn't sure if I was listening to Cornish, Irish, Spanish or Klingon. The lead actor, particularly, was perfectly capable of putting all four into his lines and randomly mixing them up.

2) Rarely will you see an American "period" film which does anything but recklessly re-write history, usually to the detriment of the country or people it targets (bitter that America doesn't have one?). This is among the worst for that crime, but take a look at the writer and director and you cannot, surely, be surprised.

3) Considering it was made in 2009, I was under the impression I was watching something from the 70s. Poor acting on a scale as bad as "Land Of The Giants", poor story and even worse editing.