Krull - Retro VHS Style

BOTTOM LINE: No, KRULL isn't a perfect film, but it is an entertaining, gee-whiz adventure perfectly suited to all but the youngest viewers. (Those disgusting, insectivorous Slayers might give easily frightened children some pretty disturbing nightmares.) This Blu-ray is a nice upgrade and worth the double-dip for the improved picture & sound quality. (Just be aware that this Blu-ray edition from Mill Creek has ZERO bonus features, so if you have the DVD you might want to hang onto it.) 4 STARSTHE STORY: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... a Romeo/King Arthur wannabe must battle a beastly man-in-a-rubber-suit villain, (unimaginatively named "The Beast") in order to rescue his beloved bride-to-be and free his mystical kingdom from The Beast's reign of terror. To accomplish this formidable task he'll need lots of advice from his crotchety self-appointed mentor, Ynyr. He'll also need help from a ragtag gaggle of oddballs; including a washed out wizard with a gooseberry pie fetish, and a mysterious, reclusive cyclops. But first our hero must locate & master a legendary weapon: a five-bladed, super-duper ninja throwing star thingy called The Glaive.THOUGHTS (contains spoilers): I'm surprised at the amount of folks who knock this harmless & engaging STAR WARS knockoff. KRULL never pretended to be the game-changing movie of the decade when it came out. It just tried to be fun & entertaining - and I think it succeeds admirably. The main downfall of the film, IMHO, is that the various challenges our hero must face really aren't all that challenging. Everything seems to come rather easily. For instance, obtaining the Glaive is fairly straightforward; our hero Colwyn dodges a few boulders during a landslide, scales a huge craggy mountain in what seems like minutes, locates the cavern containing the Glaive (and finds said weapon almost instantly since it's, like, five steps inside the cave), then he barely flinches at having to plunge half his arm into a river of molten rock(!) to retrieve it!? Later on, Luke & Obi Wan... errr... I mean Colwyn & Ynyr, find themselves ambushed by a gang of self-proclaimed ruthless cutthroats. Yet for supposedly deadly thieves & escaped convicts these fellows are fairly gregarious, proving to be all bark and no bite. Then shortly after proclaiming themselves to be staunchly independent rogues, they do a complete 180 and team up with the Good Guys after only a few minutes' worth of arguing! Lastly, rounding up the legendary wild Fire Mares doesn't prove to be much of an obstacle either, as our heroes run along side, lasso and are astride the massive steeds with almost no effort.Whether this apparent lack of genuine danger was a conscious attempt made on the part of the filmmakers to keep the movie more "family-friendly" or if it was completely accidental, I feel that it does hurt the film as a whole. Another negative worth mentioning... while I'm used to less than stellar acting, being a lifelong fan of B-grade sci-fi & horror fare, I think KRULL would be more enjoyable with better-suited actors in the two lead roles. Ken Marshall is too femmy & rather bland as our young hero, Colwyn, while Lysette Anthony is utterly wooden in her portrayal of damsel in distress, Lyssa. Even with these perceived faults the film is still a lot of fun. For me, KRULL's greatest strength lies in it's eclectic cast of secondary characters. The goofy wizard wannabe Ergo is a riot who steals every scene he's in. Scar-faced Torquil and his rough tough band of bad boys are really a fun bunch at heart. My favorite character though is the Cyclops, Rell. Hands down the best cyclops ever seen on film, IMHO, and Bernard Bresslaw is absolutely perfect in the role. Bresslaw built a career in British comedy but really nails this part with an understated performance that's noble & soft-spoken. The make-up isn't perfect but his portrayal is spirited, stoic, and more than a little sad.THE BLU-RAY: Regrettably, this hi-def release of KRULL from Mill Creek is a barebones affair. I had hoped to get rid of my Special Edition DVD and replace it with this new Blu-ray release but, unfortunately, none of the extras from the DVD are ported over. So I guess I'll keep the S.E. Krull DVD for all of its bonus content and just tuck it into the Blu-ray snapcase. The picture is very sharp, with a strong color palette, minimal artifacting, inky blacks and solid mid-tones. The spectacular location scenery looks gorgeous in this hi-def format! The movie itself doesn't appear to have had any special restorative work done to it and there's no additional footage re-inserted or anything like that... but it sure does look & sound nice. The soundmix is even & level; the dialogue is strong and thankfully doesn't get buried under the various sound effects or James Horner's music.

This is a great movie, I am very happy with this purchase.

Good for what it is older fantasy movie

Krull is one of the movies I cut my cinematic teeth on, really. In the 80s I would spend all summer in a mall. So when a movie came in, I ended up watching it... Several times. Such was Krull. I will always look back on it with a degree of nostalgia.That said, the movie itself is flawed to an extent. It isn't an awful movie. It just suffers from bad scripting. It moves (sometimes jarringly) from event to event with only flimsy justifications. Things just 'happen' quickly, and sometimes (it seems) arbitrarily. When a movie does that, you have to hope that it is good enough to just carry you along with it, and Krull just doesn't quite make it up to that level. A movie like the "Dark Knight" has the same issue, but pulls you along with sheer charisma. Krull tries, but fails - partly because of problem #2...The second major problem with Krull is the lead actor. It has to be said. Ken Marshall drags this movie down. He is a terrible actor. His attempts at sadness, happiness, or anything else fall so flat that they are laughable. His pathetic, "I have no KINGDOM!" whine remains a catchphrase for failure and foolishness to this day. He just stinks, and since he is the LEAD ACTOR it pulls down the whole film. I honestly think that Krull would have been better received if they had just chose a better lead actor.There is a lot to praise though. The musical score is top notch (if a bit overdramatic at times). The secondary cast is filled with top-notch British actors who do a fantastic job. From Freddie Jones as Ynir to Robbie Coltrain (Hagrid) as the gruff Rhun - not to mention the fantastic selection of David Battley as Ergo the Magnificent - the whole secondary cast does a great job. The props are great, and the effects hold up well even 30 years later.If you are wanting a great, brainless popcorn chomper then Krull is it. Top-rate cinema it is not - but if you can put your brain in neutral and enjoy the ride then you'll be rewarded.

Part swashbuckler, part sci-fi adventure, part romance, the always peculiar Krull is an odd fantasy quest film (to say the least). Odd, because the quest feature of the story is about finding a mythic weapon that ultimately doesn't work as well as expected. More or less making the arduous quest null and void. The plot involves a vague creature known as THE BEAST. It drops a mountain/fortress/space craft on the planet Krull and has his minions (slayers) wreck a wedding and kidnap the bride (Lyssa, played in person by Lysette Anthony, played in voice by Lindsay Crouse). Why? Why not? It obviously didn't have anything better to do. I'm sure it was on his calendar, Monday: kidnap the future Queen Lyssa. He sets her up in his Black Fortress and bedevils her just for kicks. There are oodles of skirmishes with the slayers, sparks fly, literally, and there's a merry band of bandits who follow the lovelorn prince (Ken Marshall) everywhere he goes, including a swamp. Chief among these shiftless characters are Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane. Along the way, they collect a Cyclops, two Seers (one real one phony), a Titch, and one of them visits The Widow of the Web for a short trip down memory lane (what have you been up to since you killed our son?). Did I mention this movie is peculiar?Of the actors, only Freddie Jones manages to acquit himself, the rest are minimal to say the least, especially the actress who couldn't even speak for herself. Ken Marshall makes a forgettable prince/king (Colwyn). But the sets are bizarre and lovely, the scenery vast and breath taking, the music charming, so all is not lost. It grew on me, by the time it ended I found that I quite liked it and can easily see myself watching it again. It's a keeper! But it is a weird mishmash of genres.

Firstly, although this is a US import region A it played fine on my UK Blu Ray player. The message comes up about not being compatible, but when this appears just press the disc menu button - this takes you to the play movie screen. So the film has a wide range of reviews from 1 to 5. I think this depends on whether you saw the film on it's release all those years ago. At the time we were all busy playing Dungeons & Dragons or reading Fighting Fantasy books, and this film played into all of this perfectly. I watched this film with a sense of nostalgia I suppose but it still is a perfectly good example of the genre. To those much younger, I guess they would not see it the same way, maybe you had to be there?

I remember seeing this movie in the cinema when I was in my 40s and loving it as I was then and still am a big kid. I have to say I am not disappointed with this purchase it is as good as I remember. The transfer to Blu-ray is much better than more recently made movies I have bought, the picture and sound quality cannot be faulted.I rate this movie A1 for kids of all ages. I do however have two gripes, [one] there are no special features like there are on the DVD version, [two] regretfully it is region A locked. I do however have a multi region blu-ray player, but many people do not. It annoys me that in this day and age they have not gotten round to making all DVD and Blu-ray player region free, I personally think that they should.

A sci-fi ,filmA hero on a distant planet KRULL must rescue his intended from his enemy the alien beast and his army the slayers , the hero colwyn recruits an army of thieves, a magician,a Cyclops to defeat the beast and his slayersUnderrated it's a pretty good film with actors fairly unknown then some of them became major stars in tv and filmTodd carry became a star in extendersMarshall, went on to have a role in star trek deep space 9 as commander Eddington ,who would turn traitorAnd join the maquis, a terrorist group intent on fighting the cardassians .Ms anthony had her voice dubbed to suit the American audienceLiam neeson went into star in dozens of blockbuster films

I have seen this movie numerous times. And even though it is a little cheesy in certain plot scenarios and special effects, it was incredible for its time. It has every thing a person could want in a fantasy. Monsters, mystery, and magic. This one is a must see for any fantasy lover.

Earlier reviewers have stated that KRULL is a hybrid between STAR WARS and Excalbur, and it is! It says so on the review on the back of the DVD. On that note I would say that this is the only film to successfully do so as fantasy and scifi doen't usually mix. The special effects are slightly dated but that doesn't make it any less fun. I showed it to a friend, now this guy is very hard to please he marched out of The Two Towers claiming he was bored! He watched KRULL and imediately got himself a copy. It really is a delight, a great family movie!!