Flesh Gordon

Which is worse: A cheesy porno flick or one of those old off the wall sci-fi swordfight potboilers?

Answer: How about a crossbreed? A sci-fi swordfight porno flick!

This is an interesting parody of two awful genres, played not against each other, but played INTO each other, dreadful writing and acting parodied by deft writing and clever acting.

Not a family flick (of course, not everything needs to be family fare) but an interesting play on the line of "can we make it so bad it is good?"

This unique film breaks the barriers on porn by bringing us semi-high-tech special effects (okay...they were bad), dialogue (that was bad also), interesting costumes, and (oh my gosh!) a plot!...(okay it was bad also). The main plot is a mysterious sexbeam is striking the earth, from the distant Planet Porno. Flesh, Dale(his helpless girl sidekick), and Dr. Flexi Jerkoff join forces to over-throw the evil plot made by the Evil Emperor Wang. They encounter "peni-sourauses", a ferocious lesbian tribe, and an all-out orgy in the lairs of Wang. I would also like to commend this movie on its "liberalism", due to the fact that the original owners of Planet Porno are all gay, and the writers aviod the temptation of gay bashing...there was even a very brief scene with Flesh and one of the "merry men of the forest." So, as an overview, I would say that this is a MUST SEE for anyone who loves campy and cult classics, or anyone who still believes that porn can be more than just sex-If you do not fall one of these two catogories...stay away from it! Through all of this, the movie stands as a real gem in the vast universe of cult and pornographic movies.

An underrated classic of adult humor. If you can find it in the original x-rated version, it's worth a watch. The campiness just drips from every scene and if you're an old fan of the Buster Crabbe serials, there is much to laugh at here as old cliches get "blown" away.

One thing I rarely see mentioned is the Harreyhausen-esque special effetcs..the skeleton soldiers were a delight, albeit lifted from the old Jason and the Argonauts film (at least stylistically).

The climax (sorry) with the stop-motion monster parodies both Flash and King Kong.

Dig through the credits to find Rick Baker and contemplate on how far he has come and, for SF fans, the early Bjo Trimble, long associated with the original Star Trek series and SF Fandom (Hiya Beej..grin).

Watch this back to back with the (other) modern Flash Gordon movie for a riotous evening with friends who like cheesy (but way fun) films.

When I was a kid one of the cinemas in the Isle of Man would have special late night showings in the summer season. It would alternate between soft core films and kung fu films.

Flesh Gordon would be wheeled out each summer, I think it promises more than it delivers.

A spoof of early Flash Gordon serials. Earth is hit by sex rays from outer space sending people into a sexual frenzy. When an aircraft carrying Flesh Gordon and Dale Ardor is hit by sex rays, the plane crashes as everyone starts having an orgy including the pilots. Flesh and Dale escape by parachute and land near the laboratory of Flexi Jerkoff who has a plan to stop the sex rays which emanate from outer space.

They travel to the planet Porno in Jerkoff's phallic rocket. They crash land in planet Porno ruled by Emperor Wang and he intends to marry Dale while Flesh is taken by Queen Amora as a sex slave. Somehow Flesh needs to defeat Wang but he faces rapist robots, lesbian pirates, a penisaurus, and giant monster called the great god porno.

Flesh Gordon has some really good stop motion animation, an obvious tribute to Ray Harryhausen. The film itself parodies the 1930s Flash Gordon serial rather faithfully.

However in its heart this is a campy softcore parody with some bad puns and wooden acting from Jason Williams who plays Flesh. As the title implies there is a lot of flesh on display and it has a few inspired smutty scenes. I do remember some lads at school had seen a pirate version of this movie and thought it was hilarious.

However what would had been classed as daring in the 1970s is now tame and lot of it is dull as well not helped by the poor quality of the video. It works as a piece of naughty kitsch.

Flesh Gordon (aka Flash Gordon) returns in a sex comedy.

I have never reviewed a porno flick so I feel a bit out of my element here. The title of the movie suggests that we are in for male nudity but the camera is more interested in zooming in on the naked female body, in other words - this film is made for guys!

The special effects range from terrible to outstanding.

The jokes are mostly funny.

Science fiction and comedy are two genres that don't always work when put together, however sometimes we get gems like Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986). But generally speaking, the two themes just don't mix (see TV's Lost In Space season 2).

This puts Flesh Gordon in a unique position as it has some very funny moments and its King Kong-spoof would have to rank as one of the most amusing things seen on the screen since Adam West Batman (1966).

Granted, the bigger budget 1980 movie had better sets but if you want an all round fun flick - Flesh Gordon is the show for you!