The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

Enjoyable fantasy flick that isn't much stronger than "good guy versus a bug-eyed bad guy," but with Harryhausen's name attached to it, you're probably just here for the effects anyway. Some are still quite good; time hasn't been kind to others. Strange, though, how fire works on some stone statues but not on others. Fav scene: bobble-headed, jazz-hands Kali dancing.

It's fine for a wet Sunday afternoon. You are waiting around for either some Harryhausen or Tom Baker.

Delightful type of movie they really don't make anymore. Today it would be all CGI and run over 2 hours.

While The Golden Voyage has a better script and is considerably less hokey, on the whole I would put it on a similar level to Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (whoops! A controversy). Once things get going, there are some wonderful set pieces here and Tom Baker makes for a fun villain, but the execution seems to lack a certain energy. Some one-note direction and choppy editing don't help much either.

Sinbad and his crew acquire a golden amulet. That same night, Sinbad has a dream about a man in black and a woman with an eye on her hand. When he goes ashore soon after, he meets Koura, a dark magician. Koura claims the amulet is his and wants it back in his possession at any cost. Sinbad flees into a nearby town. There he meets the vizier who also has a golden amulet. The two amulets fit together. Taken together with another third, they indicate the place where treasure of untold value rests.

Golden Voyage is no doubt episodic and a little cheesy. Which couldn't matter in the least when considering the astounding Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects and a terrific pre-Doctor Who performance from Tom Baker.

B

Probably the best Harryhausen I've seen, even though the film suffers from pacing problems galore. Still, Law makes an appealing lead, and some of the effects work-- notably the sword fight-- are pretty good. I think these are movies I'm just two decades too old for.

Ray Harryhausen's special effects are fun to watch, dated as they are; here the highlights include a battle between a centaur and a gryphon. The story is typical Arabian Nights material, flatly scripted. John Phillip Law is a fairly bland Sinbad, and Tom Baker a bland evil wizard, but Martin Shaw as Sinbad's laconic first mate and Kurt Christian as an affable proto-stoner come off better; Caroline Munro is suitably curvaceous. Nothing special, but enjoyable, with a great Miklos Rosza score.

The pacing is slow, the production design reflects the budget, and the music is overbearing in places, but that's about all that's wrong with this. I love the story; this was one of my favorites when I was little. There are lots of neat monsters, adventures at sea, and dark magic, and the acting is really quite good. Also, please marry me, John Phillip Law.

Nice Effect!

I remembered watching this when I was younger and I loved it. The special effect by Ray Harryhausen was always too cool. It takes awhile for the story to get going, but when it does get going it is a nice family oriented action adventure movie. Decent cast and it looked like Caroline Munro was going to pop out of her clothes. All in all a pretty fun movie to watch.

Great story, and great effects. Does nothing in the begining to drag you in though, you need to wait about half an hour. the only serious problem with this movie is that it includes about 30 different cultures and religions--some of which didnt even exist when sinbad was supposed to--all homogenized into one big mess of a plot, but if you can get over the plot holes it's at the very least original and entertaining.

Ray Harrihausen's best fantasy, not just because he had a budget to work with and was at the height of his powers -- but for the first and only time he had an engaging, intelligent SCRIPT (provided in part by THE AVENGERS' Brian Clemins) and gifted actors who could hold their own with the effects (especially Law and Tom Baker -- by the way, this was the movie that got him hired to play the 4th DOCTOR WHO). Simply fun from beginning to end.

Great effects for its time.