Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus

Old Lord Agon (David Warner) desires an object of power, the Eye of Braxus, which would provide him with new energy. Dar (Marc Singer) owns one half of the amulet, young king Tal (Casper Van Dien, with a ridiculous wig) the other half. Tal is caught by Lord Agon. Dar starts a rescue mission across the jungle and meets Shada (Sandra Hess, "Mortal Kombat 2"). He makes the mistake to trust her, but then she tries to steal the amulet. And on who's side is the witch Morgana (Lesley-Anne Down)?

It looks like a cheap TV production, not a movie, because it is a cheap TV production. The demon Braxus could be one of the Ninja Turtles on a Monday morning. Gabrielle Beaumont, an experienced TV director ("Dynasty", "Star Trek: Next Generation") does a good job within the budget limitation. The story is solid, the characters have a certain charm, thus 'Beastmaster 3' is neither a contribution as important to the genre as the first installment, nor trash as bizarre as the second part, but simply average entertainment to pass the time.

After seeing this movie(and while not as good as Beastmaster, but better than Beastmaster II) I have to ask if anyone else thought that the reptillian beast bore an uncanny resemblance to character of Earl Sinclair of the Jim Henson Tv series "Dinosaurs", if Earl Sinclair went on a diet and lost a ton or two? To me, the resemblance totally deflated the seriousness of the battle between the beast and Dar.

Not to be taken seriously, the cast didn't even take this seriously and it looked like they had a laugh filming this piece of c**p (except the fella who got mauled by the Lion).

Plot is simple: The Beastmaster named Dar (Marc Singer) must save his brother King Tal (Casper Van Dien) from Lord Agon (David Warner) who has captured him to make himself young for eternity or something like that, wasn't really paying attention. This inconvenience took Dar away from his wanderings around the wilderness playing with his animals. Dar is joined by Seth (Tony Todd) who can't seem to talk him out of making wrong decision after wrong decision. Later we are introduced to the stunning Shada (Sandra Hess), Jaggart (Patrick Kilpatrick), Morgana (Lesley-Anne Down) and the not-so-great acrobat Bey (Keith Coulouris) are they friends or foes? Not only these, but due to his continuous mishaps Dar gets plunged into the fires time after time with savage tribes, thieves, circuses, and un-cooperative animals.

To say the acting is poor, might be a bit harsh, Marc Singer definitely just showed up for his pay-check, if he even got one. The plot, dialogue, choreography of the fight scenes, budget, effort and the direction are the real culprits. The film feels like a series episode not far removed from Xena Warrior Princess or Hercules and I have my suspicions it was to be the first of a series but expanded into a film, maybe due to contract constraints or production issue's.

All-in-all it is a fun watch, especially the ending which is pure cheese with the super villain Braxus and the corny finish which bumped it up a star for me. Just be prepared it is not B-movie gold, but rather tv movie wtf is this s**t.

One disappointment, the massive build up for Seth revealing what he got turned into by the witch Morgana is a complete anti-climax.

Cheese moment to look out for anytime Dar summons his bird-of-prey.

Beastmaster 3 and the whole series is dumb and faky. Everone of them are B movies but this is the worst one. It combines incredibly bad acting and cheesy special effects. It is worse than a made for TV movie. If you watch this on TV like I did then you would probably find better acting and effects in the commercials you see while it is on.

I'll be short on this one. OK, I know how most of fans and non-fans of the original "Beastmaster" were annoyed by the sequel "Beastmaser - Through the Portal of Time". But this one, this one is the worst. How so? Here's why. The second one spawned this sequel. I don't know whose idea was it. And how come that such a bad sequel can produce the third one? The second one didn't even give any hints about the sequel. I just don't understand who decided to throw money away for this project? The story is ridiculous, clichéd and lame, visual and especial effects are terrible, acting, well... Not that quite, in short... Marc Singer was in his element of Darr, at least that was one thing that can make you enjoy the movie even a tiny bit. Sandra Hess was just hot in this film. And sadly, that's all she did. It's not her fault, the script and the director gave her nothing to work with. Casper Van Dien? This film was just a proof that his career will be destroyed at some point. Patrick Kilpatrick? Well, I guess that he was the man for the job when it comes to supporting villains and heavies. Patrick is a good actor, but the typecasting ruined him. David Warner, don't know how he ended up here, but obviously they needed a guy with suave looks and charming British accent. Lesley-Anne Down... well that was quite of surprise, although she didn't do much with her character. The only actor I admire here is Tony Todd, a great replacement for Seth from the original film. He didn't do much, but I think in this film Seth finally has some backstory and character, which is both serious and used, in a way, as a comic relief for just a second. Which is why I gave this film 3 of 10. Though his fight scenes were badly filmed and clumsy choreography, which basically goes for all characters in action scenes. I can also add that animals used in this film were pretty solid as trained actors. If you want a joke... Here it is - Beastmaster 3... time waster and the dullest of them all.