The Lord Protector

Charlton Heston does a fine job narrating this fantasy film featuring an other-wordly plot and some neat special effects. Patrick Cassidy (David's brother)stars along with Jay Underwood (The Boy Who Could Fly). The entire cast seems to be having fun, playing their parts with tongues planted firmly in cheek. Of course, this sort of G-rated fare is produced primarily for the kid demographic, but grown-ups can enjoy it too.

Narrated by Chuck Heston, you can tell he did only one take on some of the entries due to the inflection. Musetta Vander has one short scene, love ya Mu, wish there were more of you in this! Cassidy tries hard, and keep up the effort, but I have to say that Jonathan Fuller's performance makes the film watchable. If you're into D&D and renaissance festivals, you might find this fun. One of my best friends lost his shirt investing in this, but he has since gotten back on his feet. Yes, the producers had done a number of successful films in the past, and everyone is allowed a turkey or two. I just wish it hadn't been this one. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars, but 3 of them are because of John as Malthon/Nohtlam. The bit with the hand that has a mind of its own is a blast. I noticed they fixed some of the soundtrack issues when they re-named the film, and more of a back story would have helped. Still, with a few disjointed scenes and all it is a fun escapism film.

With Olivia Hussey as the voice of the spirits and Charlton Heston doing the narration The Dark Mist is a hit or miss satire of a fantasy film. The trouble is that the players take it a bit too seriously at times and miss the points where they're supposed to mug for the cameras.

One of Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones's sons Patrick is in the lead and title role. He's giving out Cassandra like warnings about the current king Ronald Hale tapping into the dark forces for his power. When his warnings aren't heeded, Patrick goes off and gathers a group of followers as per an ancient prophecy to stop Hale.

The Dark Mist has a few good moments, but someone with a grounding in comedy was needed to get the maximum results. That was what they didn't have at the helm.

Kids should like it though.

Either this movie was a pretty funny camp film or the acting was pretty bad (way over the top especially for the male actors). Once I decided to consider it for its camp value, I ended up enjoying it.

The basic plot was okay; a pretty average sword and sorcery story, though the sorcery had elements of technology. Despite a narrator (Charlton Heston!) there was not enough back-story to understand the world but the characters' back-stories were explained as the movie went on. There were a couple of unexplained disconnects that were more or less confusing depending on how integral to the storyline they were.

I watched it free on Netflix. I might watch it again...but I wouldn't if I had to pay for it.

When I saw this film, I assumed it had been made in the late seventies - the effects are almost drawn onto the screen; but then I spotted in was made in 1996 and my appreciation really slumped. The first thing you notice is that old Ben Hur himself is the narrator - but why? Did he need the cash? The story, not that it really matters - is a sort of "Conan" meets "Red Sonja" affair with the hero "Rennick" (Patrick Cassidy) and his trusty team of stalwarts setting off to engage the epitome of evil in a battle for the very survival of our planet. Oddly enough, the campy performances; the large-scale paper-maché sets and the merry accompanying score might be more passable if the dialogue hadn't been written by an eight year old with English as his/her fifth language. The sword and sandals fight scenes are all terribly theatrically staged, and the visual effects are similar to those on a game of "Asteroids". Not the worst, but you can see it from here...