80's MADNESS: FLASH GORDON

Flash! A-ah!!!  He's a miracle!!

In 1936, a comic strip called Flash Gordon was brought to life on the small screen. While this was followed by multiple movies and even a show, it opened a window to greater things in the future for this character onscreen....

Fast forward 26 years: Hello future!!

1980 arrives and brings us the epic movie we saw as children!

In this flick, New York Jets' star, Flash Gordon (played by Sam J. Jones), hops on a flight where a reporter is also flying when he's forced to land the plane after the pilots disappear.  Unknown to him, and the rest of the world, Ming the Merciless (played by the always epic Max von Sydow)is planning on toying with Earth before destroying it with natural disasters.  Upon landing the plane, Flash and the reporter meet a scientist who suspects the disasters are alien related and has built a rocket in which he plans to fly to the source of the alien threat and investigate.  He lures Flash and the reporter into the ship and they fly to planet Mongo where the action starts!  Will our hero save the day?  (I mean, he IS on the Jets so how much could he possibly do?)

The Jets WISH this were real!

The popular 80's cheesiness in film was in full effect in this movie!  This movie was based on a comic strip of the same name and was filmed to be intentionally cheesy as the writer of the screenplay also wrote many episodes of the 1960's Batman TV show.  While it wasn't a huge box office smash when it was released, Flash Gordon gained cult status from science fiction fans worldwide.  

The most awesome part of the movie?  The entire soundtrack was composed and performed by legendary rock band Queen!!

Best character: King Leonidas' doppelganger: Prince Vultan (played by Brian Blessed)!  General audiences consider the character's line "Gorden's alive" to be the most popular....but I love it when he cries "DIVE" in the epic battle in the sky!

Now you know where the inspiration for King Leonidas comes from!

My Rating:

3.9758298 out of 5 stars

This movie reeks of 80s cheese and is so bad it's completely awesome!  It really drags in parts, but the action scenes accompanied by the original music makes the movie cooler than it should be!

The legend of Flash Gordon (this time played by Eric Johnson) was resuscitated in 2007 through a short lived television series that lasted only one season.  I personally did not see the show, but the general consensus is that it was the opposite of the 1980 movie: it was so bad it was just horrible.

.....yea.....no.

Stick with the classic movie!


FLASH! AHHHH!  SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!


Be well,


Jay