bensonmum2
The plot of this movie is almost identical to the plot in any number of other sword and sorcerer movies that came out in the 80s. Other than the fact that the title character, Red Sonja (Brigitte Nielsen), is a woman, there's not much else in the way of originality. Red Sonja's sister is killed by an evil queen (Sandahi Bergman) intent on getting her hands on a powerful orb. Red Sonja vows revenge and goes after the queen. Along the way, she gathers a ragtag band to assist her, including Cona . . . er, I mean Kalidor (Arnold Schwarzenegger). They'll have lots of adventures and battles along the way – leading to a final showdown between Sonja and the queen.Despite what a lot of people around the internet would lead you to believe, Red Sonja isn't horrible – well, not horrible when you compare it with a lot of the other Conan wannabes that came out in the early 80s. In fact, parts of the films are a lot of fun. There are some pretty decent fight scenes (the best being the sparring matches between Nielsen and Schwarzenegger), at least one interesting creature, and a couple of cool looking sets. I really enjoyed seeing Sandahi Bergman in the role of the queen. Here, she seems to be having a blast. Her final showdown with Nielsen is actually quite good and really gives the film a nice ending.Of all the problems you could list when discussing Red Sonja, the most obvious is the poor acting. My understanding is that prior to taking the role of Red Sonja, Brigitte Nielsen was a magazine model with no acting experience. This was her first role. Schwarzenegger has never been known as a thespian. He's fun to watch, but he's always been limited. Finally, Ernie Reyes Jr wasn't really an actor either. Here, he's just annoying. It says a lot about the quality of the cast when I can say in all honesty that Sandahi Bergman is the best actor in the film.Finally, one thing about Red Sonja I find hysterical is her repeated insistence that she needs no help - especially from a man. Yet at every tun, Cona . . . I mean Kalidor is there to save her butt. She'd have been dead half way through the film if it weren't for him.
Kirpianuscus
a B movie, far by surprise, using old recipes of mixture fairy tale - science fiction and few Extreme Orient pieces in a chaotic story . nothing new, nothing memorable. maybe strange because the meeting of Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ennio Moriccone is almost eccentric. it is not fair to define it as bad movie. its target is clear - the fans of comics, and the virtue is exactly the respect for this literature.the story is only a sketch, the fight scenes not the best, the atmosphere amusing. so, only piece from a bizarre genre , heroic using old clichés, full of good intentions but far to be more than source of obscure references. and the dialogues are the first proof. the good point - maybe the nice mixture of similarities with the Conan the Barbarian. and few drops of eroticism or Arnold Schwarzenegger as savior of film.
david-sarkies
This movie is advertised as an Arnold Swartzenegger movie but he really only plays a supporting character to the role of Sonja (Bridgette Neilson). The story of this movie is quiet good, carrying lots of fantasy elements in it like guardian beasts, huge spiders, wicked queens, and a powerful artifact that can destroy the world. Unfortunately the acting is really bad. One may think that the actors in this movie, even the famous Arnie, never went to acting school. This is surprising because Neilson was much better in Beverly Hills Cop II. But in this movie most of the lines were poorly delivered and the script was incredibly corny.The plot is a typical fantasy plot. A powerful artifact is to be destroyed but the wicked queen Gedren (Sandahl Bergmen) comes along with her powerful army and kills all of the priestesses and steals the talisman. The thing about the talisman is that only a woman can touch it so Gedren is very happy. She then takes the Talisman to he castle and begins her plan to conquer the world. Sonja, who has come afoul of Gedren before, learns of the attack in which her sister is killed and storms off after Gedren.This movie seems to be an anti-feminist movie. Women have the power in this movie, in regards to the talisman, and play a prominent part. Sonja hates men and believes that she can get along with out having to rely upon any man. Yet Prince Kalidor (Arnold Swartzenegger) always appears and fights for her when it seems that she is almost defeated. This movie seems to try to say that women and men need to work together and they cannot write each other out. There is also the idea, as symbolised by Kalidor and Sonja being swordspeople of equal ability, that there is no difference between men and women and that they are equals.It is a shame that most fantasy movies only come out as half-hearted attempts at some entertainment. There is truly very few good fantasy movies on the shelves of the video store. Fantasy is more of an uncliched genre as it has not really been explored as much as it could be. So far it has remained the realm of the novel but there is much room for it to move to the big screen.
dworldeater
Red Sonja is,for me a guilty pleasure for sure .The best acting comes from Arnold,where he basically plays himself . Everyone else is bad,real bad. Most of the dialogue is delivered like the English overdubbing in a 1970's kung fu flick. The acting is wooden , the sets are real shoddy looking and cheap .The special f/x look like crap. Brigitte's swordfighting skills is worst, and even less convincing than her acting ,which is horrible at this point . Even so, I found this to be an improvement to Conan The Destroyer . As a fan of campy barbarian movies, Red Sonja is a lot of cheesy fun .Even with a ridiculous red mullet, Brigitte was still nice to look at and a big time 80's babe.There is cheesy, quotable dialogue and for as poorly made as this was,it is never boring and a lot of fun .This is not in the same league as Conan The Barbarian, but not a schlock grade ripoff like Ator The Fighting Eagle or the Deathstalker series .(both of which I like ) Red Sonja is not a good film,but is good entertainment for sure.
AD
