Sumuru

This movie is admittedly not the highest-budget, but what I like is that the producers know that, and refuse to take themselves too seriously. Maybe it would be better to say that the producers spent their money wisely, rather than throwing it into expensive, unnecessary effects.

Filmed in South Africa by a German company, the locations are terrific, the actors are from all over the world (Michael Shanks has a fun departure from "type" as an action hero, and pulls it off well), and unlike some "blockbusters" I've seen, this one actually has a plot. Admittedly, it's not something to examine too closely (or maybe you would -- it's fun to try and come with answers to "why are you wearing metal clothes in the desert?" among others!), but the one-liners are fun, the men are dashing, the women are regal, the actors all seem to have good chemistry on-screen, and it's got a big giant snake.

What more could you ask for when you're looking for light, fun sci-fi?

What a production, what a waste of screen-time and money. Here is what some european so called producer think, of a scifi movie. Take former model, Alexandra Kamp, pair a with an US c-class actor and get one of film business most notorious producer Harry A. Towers. Towers then finds some obscure munich based prod. house, Tandem communication, Rola Bauer, and then mix it all up with no script whatsoever and you'll get "Sumuru" - a priceless gem among the worst movies ever done! Get a live people, and do something else, whatever you do, no movies please!! To top everything, producers went to South Africa for filming, what you see on screen is one giant sand hole, where the "action" takes place, between extremely bad actors and extremely bad fx that any film student would do better.

This movie was really bad. I mean really really bad. The scenes were like from a parody and special effect sucked a lot. And it was filmed in 2003!!! i think this was a great waste of time and money and Michael Shanks with his 'Shaggy from Scooby Doo' image just made me laugh. Never waste your time with this picture... I really don't know what the director was thinking after seeing the final cut of this movie but the fights were so unrealistic that it hurt my eyes to look on them. The 'latex cat women' fighters were like sheep just rolling around the scenes and looking frightened around like they had no clue what to do on the scene... I think this is a beautiful example of Bottom 100 picture.

I enjoyed this movie. It was a little bit "Barbarella for Girls" (not complaining!!) but entertaining and given that the script was very tongue in cheek, well acted. The special effects were a little bit strained, on a smaller budget its better to not try so hard, the results can be better and they do look like they tried too hard in places. I wasn't sure about the female lead, but I suspect it was a difficult one to play, the bad "guy" was well done...its easier to play a baddie in sci-fi because you can ham it up, and this one does. In fact there are times when there is a lot of "hamming" from all directions, which makes the film amusing..I think this is the intention. The film doesn't take itself too seriously as a result which is what makes it so entertaining. Plus there were actually some plot twists and turns which is nice is a sci-fi movie. I managed to obtain this film from Germany...my main complaint is why is this not on general release?

While the 2003 movie "Sumuru" is by no means an outstanding movie, it actually is a watchable movie, if nothing else.

Granted, the storyline presented by writers Harry Alan Towers, Peter Jobin, Torsten Dewi and Sax Rohmer have elements of classic fantasy, laced with some light sci-fi elements. And of course it is topped off by a heap of scantily clad women and set in an Amazonian-like environment (Amazon as in the female warrior society, not the South American region, nor the online giant vendor). And while it does actually sound like it is a good combination for some geeky entertainment, the movie was actually not overly impressive.

The storyline was rather mundane and actually boring, and I managed to endure an hour of the ordeal, then I was tender to the core, good and ready to find something else to watch. And I did; I turned off the movie at that point, because I just didn't have the will or interest to watch any more of this.

Now, what did work in favor of "Sumuru" was the production value, for the most parts. I will say that the movie definitely had a good production and editing to it, and it felt like a wholehearted movie, where it could just as easily has come off as being a project made by young adults for young adults. I liked the costumes and the props, and the setting of the movie was actually good too.

The acting in the movie was adequate. With the movie's premise in mind, you know you are not in for a grand Shakespearian performance here, nor will you witness any amazing performances worthy of top notch awards.

While I searched this movie on IMDb, I saw that there were other - older - titles also bearing the name Sumuru in the title. I haven't seen those movie, so I have no idea what the connection is, or how the continuation of those movies is with this 2003 movie.

All in all, "Sumuru" was not a movie that provided the needed entertainment value, and it just succumbed to becoming too much of a low budget B-movie. My rating of the 2003 movie "Sumuru" settles on a mere four out of ten stars. I had initially settled on three stars, but the movie's overall production managed to lift up the movie a notch.