darkalo84

Once again a studio lacking fresh ideas decides to do yet another spin on a decades-old and well-established saga just to cash in on the popularity of the brand name.

Pretty much like in The Exorcist Believer or Scream 5, avid and unscrupulous movie moguls break open into those sacred temples, ransack the graves, open up the coffins and manhandle and play with the uncorrupted flesh and soul of our beloved ones.

They make the necessary changes to conform to modern audiences, so they refit, readapt and retcon the whole storyline and characters to fit into "THE MESSAGE". You know what I am talking about.

All you need now is to bring in some old faces for the fan service value, mimic or copy-and-paste whole scenes and catchphrases and add the musical cues at the right time... et voilá. You just made another instalment despite such instalment just being a complete rehash/remake of the original.

Anyways, as explicitly explained by other people here, some pre-established facts are changed for the sake of being able to tell another The Omen story.

This movie is a total pass if you want to enjoy the original trilogy coherently.

In the words of Michel Ferry, the assistant director, Red Sonja is the female version of Conan. And indeed it is. Not only in terms of her own story which parallels that of Conan up to certain extent, but in relation to the quality of the final work. Superbly crafted sets like the red castle, the stunning Italian landscapes, fabulous and detailed old-fashion visual effects and compositions, arresting cinematography and an original soundtrack by Ennio Morricone no less.

Red Sonja in her master's own words: "Magnificent. You have nothing more to learn. You are the master of the master. Never have I seen your equal". And this comes after training, practice, suffering and yes, the help of an unidentified spirit but Brigitte Nielsen as a super tall fiery redhead does look the part unlike many a really skinny and small girl boss of the 2010s and 2020s.

The first scene with the fierce she-warriors/priestess being assaulted by the all-male Queen's forces was simply awesome. I wonder whether Zack Snyder took his inspiration from this battle when crafting the scene in which the Amazons protect their Mother Box. It's the closest thing you will ever see.

Moreover the movie contains one of the most hilarious moments ever committed to epic fantasy cinema when the Queen's sorcerer tries to conjure up a live broadcast of the main protagonists and instead the old pervert blunders the connection and a bare-breasted dancer appears on-screen.

Sincerely I do not understand some of the bad reviews. Neither Arnold nor Brigitte deliver Academy-award performances but they are competent enough and they do seem like rugged no-frills warriors of a mythical bygone era.

Arnold does have a somewhat great part in the film but in the end I think Brigitte remains the lead throughout and her final and sensational confrontation with the main antagonist is a proof of that. And talking about that. I got to read some people ranting about this very duel between Sonja and the Queen. I really don't know what's wrong with the duel. Seriously.

It's a real shame the title was changed to 'Kalidor' in France, 'Yado' (for Arnold's character) in Italy or 'El Guerrero Rojo' (The Red He-Warrior) in Spain back in the day. I waited for years for the steelbook to come out so I could own a copy with the correct main title on the spine. And I think the average rating of 5.1 on IMDB (by 2024) is totally undeserved. Should be somewhere in the region of 6.5 - 7.5. Even if some people involved in the production of this project have convinced themselves to downplay its production and entertainment values because of the buzz of woule-be critics over the years.

All in all, a wonderful sword and Sorcery flick made to entertain, enjoy and wonder.

It took me more than a decade to just watch the first two episodes of this show and... I feel utterly dissapointed at how dumb these characters and situations are.

Nice zombie prosthetics cannot make up for stupid characters doing stupid things in stupid situations nonstop.

So the main lead wakes up from a coma in a hospital in the midst of a post apocalyptic zombie outbreak and.... come on!!! I can't believe they are so blatantly ripping off the beginning of '28 Days Later'. Because the first issue of the comic series was published in 2003 and the movie was released a year prior.

I can only be astounded by such incredible case of plagiarism.

So there's a deadly virus responsible for the end of the world and this Sheriff/main protagonist shoots up the zombies in the head at such a close range that it seems as though he wanted some blood and brains splashed all over his face but hey.. this is Hollywood. The blood only splashes if the writers want it so.

Later on he starts hatching a zombie to pieces and advises "do not let the blood touch your skin ok?". But hey, there they are, barely a feet away from the corpse lying on the ground. And the Sheriff keeps violently chopping the body to pieces and yet... Nobody gets splashed with a single drop of blood and guts. Nobody gets infected. And then the sheriff hands over the hatchet and the face masks which are both badly smeared with blood and guts but hey... no problemo amigo!!

No matter how close they are to the zombies or how they hit or kill the zombies. They won't ever get infected unless the writers decide so. No matter the sheriff is completely surrounded by zombies and the zombies are touching his legs. They won't bite him or scratch him, he can still jump off the horse unscathed to relative safety and so on and on.

And then there is this bunch of dumb-and-dumber people who set up camp in the worst possible of places. A shoddy camp made up of an RV and some scattered tents placed in no particular fashion and at the very edge of dense woods.

So just the perfect place for zombies to pop up out of the blue undetected and start chewing the kids. But hey, these are the protagonists. No zombie will dare attack them.

What kind of control they have over the surroundings? Absolutely none. It's preposterous their non-existent self-awareness and skills to choose and set up a proper camp in a zombie-infested area.

And the zombie apocalypse has just broken out and they are already searching for wild mushrooms?? For God's sake, they could be checking out the ten thousand supermarkets and stores still with plenty of food instead.

Everything feels and looks sloppy and messy.

These episodes are a thousand miles away from 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead (either the original or the remake) Day of the Dead (just the original) or Land of the Dead.