"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'Flash Gordon approaching'?!"

So you feel it’s the end of the story
Find it all pretty satisfactory
Well I tell you my friend
This might seem like the end
But the continuation
Is yours for the making

Yes you’re a hero!

"OH WELL, WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER?

HAWKMEN! DIIIIIIIIIVE!"

Flash by a narrow margin for camp, actors, style, and starlets. Although, Erin Grey (in that jumpsuit) and Pamela Hensely narrowly edge out Flash's Melody Anderson and Ornella Muti.

God, what a great film.. I saw it as a matinee too. Makes me feel like I'm 60.

Ornella Muti as the hot-ass evil princess = my first screen crush

(well, there was Nastassia Kinski and Tatum O'Neal, I guess.)

"Pathetic earthlings!!" shouts Ming the Merciless!

[cut to:]

"FLASH! AH-ahhhhhh!"

What's the name of the (Russian?) doctor, who gets tortured with the memories machine?

Zarkov, Pete. Played by top 'ole actor, Topol.

Do you ever imagine Alan Partridge singing the theme tune? Ah-ha!

"OPEN FI-YAH!"

Did anybody ever interview Max von Sydow about this? i always wondered how he felt about doing the flick.

Between that and his Conan cameo he had a great early eighties.

This was the first film I ever saw on video

I was just thinking that this hasn't been on telly for ages.

This was the first film I ever saw on video

The first three films I ever saw on video were Goldfinger, Night of the Lepus and Love at First Bite, all in one weekend at my cousin's house. Sweet.

! Accentmonkey, are you me in a parallel universe or something?

gee, how do you remember stuff like that?

xp WTF waht madness is that

HOT HAIL!

one of Ming's weapons is HOT HAIL!

"This Ming is a psycho!"

"THIS MING...IS A PSYCHO."

gee, how do you remember stuff like that?

Because we watched them about forty times each over the course of the weekend. Making the rabbits go backward over the houses was fun.

! Accentmonkey, are you me in a parallel universe or something?

Perhaps I am. Would that astound you?

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

Perhaps I am. Would that astound you?

Not really, our sensibilities seem reasonably in sync.

Somewhere I've got a bootleg of Queen in Tokyo playing most of the Flash Gordon soundtrack. I should dig that up.

The Onion's Ming "influenced" columnist:
http://www.theonion.com/content/columnists/view/gorzo

Ned, you should dig that up, oh yes.

paging Buster Crabbe

This is one of those films, like with Star Wars, Harold & Maude, the Gradurate, or (arguably) Wes Anderson movies, where you can't separate the film from its soundtrack. Without Queen, the movie is Brian Blessed and little else. The band was perfect for making this little late 70s/early 80s b-movie timeless.

When I finally grew old enough to start digging thru record bins instead of just tapes, this was the first piece of vinyl i ever bought:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/6611.jpg

You want Buster, Morbs, you got it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQoeEw6cALw

Just watched it for the first time, off Netflix. It's not much apart from Blessed and the soundtrack. Now I'll need to search out the DVD for this commentary track. "Brian Blessed!" "Look at that rocket, it's a rococo rocket, it's almost a piece of cake."

<3
this & barbarella were on heavy rotation when i was a kid
iirc i had girlcrush on ornella muti & anita pallenberg characters

"Gordon's alive..."

Princess Aura: [attempts to use her ring to open the door, it doesn't respond] They've changed the code!
Prince Barin: I've changed too, Aura.
Princess Aura: And I've changed, too.
Dr. Hans Zarkov: Oh, it's okay. I think I can work it out.
[starts to use Princess Aura's ring at different angles on the door]
Prince Barin: I love you. Will you marry me?
Princess Aura: I don't know, we'll try...
[breaks away as Barin moves in to kiss her]
Princess Aura: Not now, Barin...!
Prince Barin: You haven't changed...
Princess Aura: If I'm not at the wedding, I'll be shot
Dr. Hans Zarkov: [Finally manages to picks the electronic door lock with Aura's ring] A-ha! I thought it was one of the prime numbers of the Zeman series. *I* haven't changed.

That last line is this movie's equivalent of "made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs"

I was wondering how anyone could write this off as "not much" but kingfish has an identical opinion just upthread so idk.