226. Flash Gordon (1980)

Starring: Sam J. Jones, Brian Blessed, Max von Sydow

Director: Mike Hodges

Running Time: 111 mins

Flash Gordon is an American film about an American football player who, after a crash landing in a plane, ends up being taken to a distant planet by a mad scientist, where he discovers there are plans to destroy the Earth, and he is the only one who can save the day.

This film is possibly the most fun film to watch ever! Basically, watching this is like watching an episode of Star Trek and Doctor Who made on a budget of about 5 quid, and because of its innocence in terms of special effects, it’s actually really pleasant to watch.

It also has one of the cheesiest concepts I think a film has had in all of history. An American football player who falls in love with a woman when he only has 14 hours to save the Earth from being blown up by evil aliens? I’m sorry, but it’s hard to believe that that sort of story ever gets made, and this did have a poor story, but it was still fun!

As well as all of that, to make this film a true delight to watch, it’s got Brian Blessed in it. He has the best voice of any actor, and the character that he plays allows him to exploit that as much as possible, so that’s definitely great.

Overall, I’ll give this 7.6, because although it was the cheesiest thing in history, it was such good fun to watch, with fantastically bad special effects to make it seem all the more realistic, and accompanied by a fantastic theme song by Queen, this film is great!