Atlantis

Degenerate Atlantean society destroying itself on a budget.

Coming at the end of the decade of F-grade fantasy flicks, this one's better than a lot of them. It has all you expect--wooden acting, dodgy sets and costumes, and a bare-bones, macguffin-dependent plot.

There are actually a couple of good lines throughout, but mostly it's laughable dreck to be watched late at night when you're drunk.

One irritating note--the soundtrack is basically just someone leaning their elbow on a synth keyboard for the entire time. The constant dull drone of a handful of notes just going on and on non-stop no matter what's happening on screen gets pretty grating.

Of course I had never heard about the 1991 fantasy movie "Atlantis" from writer and director Michael J. Murphy, as I stumbled upon it here in 2023. And given it being a fantasy movie, of course I opted to watch it. And the fact that it was apparently an Atlantis-themed movie just served as icing on the cake.

The storyline in "Atlantis", as written by writer and director Michael J. Murphy, was a pretty straightforward storyline. Not anything impressive or overly interesting actually, and thus also not particularly entertaining. "Atlantis" looked and felt like a low budget amateurish attempt at staging a grand adventure movie with an Atlantean theme. It didn't really pan out as intended.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. The acting performances were actually fair enough. It was not top notch acting performances, of course, but far from being among the worst I have sat through.

The props, especially the swords, looked so horribly and laughably fake. But at least they get points for trying. Some of the costumes were actually fair enough. Nothing fancy or overly impressive, mind you, but some of the wardrobes and costumes in the movie were actually not all that bad.

The effects in the movie were non-existing. It was pretty low key and practical effects whatever was in use. Not that it really came off as being impressive, though.

"Atlantis" was painful viewing experience to sit through, and it is not a movie that I would recommend to fans of the fantasy genre. Nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of "Atlantis" lands on a two out of ten stars.

I admit it, I loved Hawk the Slayer, Ator the Invincible, Ator the fighting Eagle, Sword and Sorceress. Prisoners of the lost Universe. Warlords of Atlantis and At the Earth's core. Wonderful hokum. Shlock of the highest order. Murphy's Atlantis is of a similar fare but done with a small budget. Well compared to most of Mike's movies this looks big budget.

The plot is wonderful. Two people get dragged into Atlantis. The fabled lost city. Their fate is intertwined with the fate of Atlantis. When they get down there they find that the world is ruled by sadists. A queen, a princess, a vicious hench man and bizarrely an alien. As the plot progresses you get to find out about how they all interact. Their stories are fleshed out.

This is a sword and sandals epic made on a small budget. If you think of the two seventies classic movies At the Earth's core and Warlords of Atlantis done cheaply you get the idea. If you go into this movie expecting to see amazing effects Hollywood stars you will come away disappointed. If you want to see a triumph over adversity with a very strong plot but no budget to back it up, this is your movie. It is like 80s Dr Who compared to the revamped series with Chris Eccleson. This movie does feel like it could have Troughton or Pertwee in it helping to save the citizens of Atlantis.

I have found this great director Mike Murphy. He makes low budget classics. Oddly in the reviews there are two reviews from the same person both saying this movie is trash. It is a trash classic. Plus they give the ending away. Very bizarre way to review a movie.

If you are a B-movie nerd tthis is worth a look for irony and hilarity. It's available on Youtube - it started by autoplaying last night and woke my wife and I up in the middle. It was surreal at first, then hilarious. It's like the script was written by a game of Chinese Telephone. Anyway, It was a profound B-movie experience. I went back this morning to look at it and make sure it actually happened. Not a mediocre movie - its a famously bad B-movie. I think this is the first review I've written but I saw the comments and felt that someone needed to testify to its merits.

Interesting also because it looks almost like it was made in the late 60s/early 70s (to my eye) but was actually released in 1991 and I believe it was not shot on film. The Youtube file name mentions betacam.

This is the kind of enjoyable nonsense that one always hoped would turn up on late night TV.

More enthusiasm than budget, with shameless use of cardboard and papier mache when appropriate to turn out some really-quite elaborate sets. There is also a plot of sorts and most of the cast play it admirably straight, which is a testament to Murphy's inspirational leadership, I guess - although Phil Lyndon almost lets the side down somewhat by displaying some reasonable acting skills!

If you are a fan of micro-budget film, you may already have found this - but if not it's definitely recommended - and freely available on youtube.