Sinbad of the Seven Seas

Plot synopsis:
In the city of Basra, the evil vizier Jaffar has clouded the caliph's mind and imprisoned his daughter, Princess Alina in order to marry her. Jaffar has four of the town's five sacred gems sent to dangerous and evil places where they will be carefully guarded by magical forces. Sinbad and his crew arrive at the caliph's palace, only to be captured by the hypnotised soldiers. Jaffar sentences Sinbad's crew to the torture chamber while the mighty sailor is to be locked in a pit full of snakes. Sinbad gets out of the snake pit using some snakes tied together into a rope and later rescues his companions from the torture chamber. As they flee the controlled Basra, Jaffar grants power from evil forces to help him kill Sinbad, this summons an evil cloud over Sinbad's ship and the Legions of Darkness, undead warriors. Together with the help of his friends, Sinbad manages to defeat the undead and the leader. Sinbad heads to a mysterious island to seek the help of a wise Oracle, who tells them the location of the four sacred gems of Basra. Then, he sails to an island and finds the gem by himself, he destroys a towering rock monster and retrieves the gem. Jaffar is joined by another ally, Soukra, a sorceress, and they prepare Jaffar's scheming plan. The second gem is on the island of the Amazons, the Amazons hypnotise Sinbad's crew and the Queen takes Sinbad with her. The Bald Cook and Poochie the dwarf save Sinbad and retrieves the second gem, the Queen's necklace. Next, Sinbad and his team head to the Isle of the Dead, where they battle Ghost Knights who have risen from the dead to fulfill their destiny. Sinbad goes for the Ghost King while his companions battle the Knights. Jaffar casts Sinbad's ship and his crew in the middle of the sea, leaving the sailor alone on the Isle of the Dead. Jaffar gives life to the Ghost King using his evil powers, and it weakens Sinbad, but he resists and destroys the Ghost King with his own sword and takes the third sacred gem. Later, Sinbad meets Kira, and her father, Nadir the wizard, two survivors on the Isle of the Dead who came there on a flying balloon. Sinbad agrees to help them get rid of the vicious monsters of the island and is aided by Kira, they encounter a group of ghouls, Sinbad fights them but Kira is captured by them. Sinbad rescues Kira but has to face a terrible monster able to fire bolts of energy from its wrists guarding the last sacred gem of Basra, Sinbad defeats the evil creature with the gems he has and retrieves the last one and they, along with Nadir escape the island on a balloon. Sinbad meets up with his companions and they go off to face Jaffar, Sinbad's men face off the soldiers while Sinbad battles Jaffar. The wizard creates an exact Sinbad clone to battle the sailor, but he manages to defeat it. Eventually, Jaffar is captured by Sinbad and Princess Alina is rescued. Peace has been restored to the world with the sacred gems.

Tags: brainwashing, storytelling

Review:
Sinbad is easily more entertaining than Plan 9 from Outer Space, which is more commonly considered the best bad movie ever.I won't give away all the details that make this movie so laughably awful, but I'll mention a few that I hope will convince you to find and watch this film.
(You can read a more comprehensive review at www.rinkworks.com/badmovie/m/sinbad.of.the.seven.seas.1989.shtml)John Steiner hammimg up the role of Jaffar, the villain.
You'll know which one I mean when you hear it.All the music is done by one guy on a synthesizer, a total of about five different sound effects are used in all the fight scenes, and all the lines are DUBBED OVER.
Definitely recommended for any fans of bad cinema, this movie has it all.
Lou Ferrigno (Hulk!) throws his sword away and wrestles with bad guys, in sloooooow motion action sequences that will have you yawning in anticipation.
Lou Ferrigno is a joy to watch, especially his hilarious facial expressions.
Cheesy fights; awful, unnatural (ie, hilarious) dialogue; and poor acting all combine to bring the word "appalling" to mind.This movie is not a painful bad, but a funny bad, best enjoyed with buddies.
But i guess I'd say watch this movie if you're looking for a serious laugh and have some time to kill, being under the influence really helps...trust me.
An awesomely ripped Lou Ferrigno headlines here as the eponymous hero in this visually lavish fantasy flick brought to us by the ever reliable Enzo G.Castellari.Sinbad's mission is to brave numerous perils in order to rescue a beautiful princess from the clutches of an evil wizard named Jaffar who has taken over the kingdom of Basra by dark magical means.Also along for the adventure are Sinbad's crew who are comprised of a mighty viking, a philosophical samurai warrior, a dashing prince who is betrothed to the captive princess, a bald chef and a dwarf named Poochi(!) Along the way this brave band of heroes find themselves up against undead armies, rock monsters, seductive Amazonians and a slimy ogre plus in the finale, big Lou comes up against his own clone!!!
Approach this in the right frame of mind and you should have a good time, after all it's entirely harmless fun in much the same vein as films such as Labyrinth etc.Certainly the film does have far higher production values than most Italian films of the eighties with some beautifully sumptuous sets and costumes on display throughout.
Added to this there's a good assemble of B-Movie stars; Big Lou, Romano Puppo (sadly relegated to a very minor role) and of course the ever wonderful John Steiner who is clearly having a ball with his material here as the delightfully hissable Jaffar.Unfortunately, there are a number of factors which do seriously drag the film down however.
For instance, a few of the characters (most notably Lou) have been entirely overdubbed with irritating voice overs - quite why this was the case, I have no idea.By far the most damning criticism I have for the film though is the intrusive and annoying narrative that accompanies (and incessantly interjects upon!) the proceedings throughout.
If you like a spot of swashbuckling fantasy and enjoy films such as The Princess Bride and the aforementioned Labyrinth then this may well be right up your street..
This is one of the best bad movies ever made.
Mr. Poe's actual story bears little to no similarities to this tale, but the fact that it opens with the claim that it is based on his story is just part of the inane fun that is SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS!
Fun fact, the short story Edgar Allen Poe actually wrote, "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade," is an amusing story(far better than this movie) in which Scheherazade tells of Sinbad's last adventure in which real things from an outsiders perspective are described, but not believed by the King.The Story: Sinbad returns home to find that the evil Jaffar has rested control of the kingdom with his sorcery and brought an age of darkness.
Sinbad and his intrepid crew must find the four magic gems that will return peace to the land and save the princess.Three out of ten stars for the film(I've sadly seen worse) and nine out of ten for unintentional humor..
"Sinbad of the Seven Seas" its another great "Z" movie from the director Enzo G.
Castellari, "Sinbad of the seven seas" its an Italian fantasy a muscle-bound Sinbad (Lou Ferrigno) and his sailors cross the seas to recover the magic stones and help a young prince regain his throne battling it out with a powerful, wicked wizard Jaffar (John Steiner).
The lack of money its clearly in the movie, the acting its terrible..well, its entertaining and makes laugh, its a 5 o'clock fantasy flick...If you like this one, i recommend: "Hercules in the Haunted World" ( Mario Bava, Franco Prosperi); "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger"(Sam Wanamaker) and "Clash of the Titans"(because of special effects of Ray Harryhausen) ..
TV's Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno's fourth in a series of Italian made sword and sandal flicks he starred in during the 1980s.
Sinbad succeeded two Hercules films and one titled, The Seven Magnificent Gladiators.
Ray's meticulously worked stop motion special effects leave those in Sinbad Of The Seven Seas standing, and that's the point; this film is so wooden.
The plot calls for Sinbad to bring home some special stones so that his pal the Prince can marry his beloved Princess who is being held by an evil wizard (John Steiner).
See this if you like Lou Ferrigno (he still looks great and has let his curly hair grow out Afro style) and/or sword and sandal pics - just don't expect to be riveted to your seat..
One of the main reasons for watching this film is a show stealing performance by the Town Crier (who is that guy?).
Sinbad, for once depicted as a conflicted tragic figure, is flawlessly portrayed by Lou Ferrigno, who displays considerable acting muscle here, in a performance that lights up the screen and at moments even eclipses the impeccable photography: think Storaro on acid, meticulously framing mythical creatures, damsels in distress, lavish landscapes galore.
When you insert Sinbad of the Seven Seas in your VCR its like stepping into a world of swash-buckling, sword fighting, man-boob bouncing action.
I have not seen such BAD acting ever before in my life and that includes high school production plays!
This movie breaks all records in casting such a number of bad actors in one film.
while we all love a bad "B" movie, this one takes the cake, but doesnt know how to eat it!
Made in Spain with no sound equipment under a director who rewrote it as he filmed it, shelved for years due to being unusable, then one day roughly edited, badly dubbed, and poorly scored in an attempt to get something saleable and here we are.Ever seen Sinbad portrayed as a heavily muscled superman in sparkly purple disco tights?
Well now you can!There's monsters, fighting, sexy ladies, animated effects, leather clad henchmen, slo-mo running, a 'Poochie the Dwarf' comic-relief who's neither funny nor a dwarf then disappears midway through the movie, more fighting, constant narration explaining what's going on, laughably poor music, magical zombie horses, and that guy off the hulk, I mean what's not to like, people!?.
Castellari puts the 'bad' in Sinbad with this inept fairy-tale flick based on The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar Allen Poe. Bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno plays the legendary sailor who, with the help of his brave crew, must recover five magical gems to free the city of Basra, which has fallen under an evil spell cast by wicked wizard Jaffar (John Steiner).Sinbad of the Seven Seas opens in a similar manner to The Princess Bride (1987), with a mother (Daria Nicolodi) reading a bedtime story to her young daughter.
But whereas this framing device was used sparingly and intelligently in Rob Reiner's much loved classic, Castellari's muddled storytelling requires frequent and extremely dull narration from Nicolodi to help explain the story, all of which proves very distracting, never allowing the viewer to become immersed in the action.Not that the film would prove very engaging even if it it were possible to follow matters without the narration: Castellari's direction is dreadful, the script (by fellow Italian hack Luigi Cozzi) is diabolical, the performances range from wooden (Ferrigno) to ridiculously hammy (Steiner), and the special effects are cheap and nasty.
Well, Sinbad is played by Lou Ferrigno.
I didn't even remember seeing it, but when I spoke to my brother about The Archer last time, he said: Yes that was a great B movie, just as Sinbad of the Seven Seas with Lou Ferrigno.' I was like: WHAT FILM?' Then he told me all about the zombies and the scene when Sinbad squished one of the zombies hearts with his bare hands and I was like: Was that the movie when he rips off an arm off one of the zombies?' He said YEP' and I remembered.
I mean I do not remember many films for such a long time without having seen them, after that.
The name Jaffar and Prince Ali fell so I thought I was watching "Thief of Bagdad" (Most who is reading this doesn't know but Disney's Aladdin was for a part inspired by Thief of Bagdad, names and plot) so I was excited.
When the name Sinbad fell it made me frown, I didn't understand what Sinbad and Prince Ali (who I thought was Aladdin) did in the same movie.
or I remember hearing my friends, who seen this movie, mentioning Sinbad in Thief of Bagdad.
I turned out too be a Sinbad movie and the Prince Ali character was just a part of his crew and had not much dialog his reasons was that he wanted to marry this princess Alina (who I, at that moment, thought was the live-action version of the beautiful, strong Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin") The princess wasn't much better she just let her be captured by the wizard and waited, chained, for her rescuer who came in the form of Sinbad.
The plot it self would be fine for a movie but the rest was bad.
If you wanna see Sinbad brought to live on TV I recommend watching "Adventures of Sinbad, The" (1996)" But don't watch this, waste of time & money, movie..
Sinbad must recover five magical stones to free the city of Basra from the evil spell cast by a wizard.
His journey takes him to the isle of the Amazons where the queen tries to capture him, to a battle with ghost warriors on the isle of the dead, and ultimately to a battle with his own double.....You know your in good company when the Cannon group logo appears for a film, and much like every film released by them, good or bad, you know what you are going to get, thanks to the title, and knowing that the only actor in this film you have heard of is Ferrigno.Yes, the film is all kinds if bad, from the script, to the choreography, the awful acting and overacting of the cast, its a poor film.But it's never boring, not for one minute.When Sinbad escapes from a dungeon using deadly snakes as a rope, you give up all hope of watching a movie in the vein of the Harryhausen classics, and settle for men in very bad costumes.Ferrigno, buff as he is, has no screen presence whatsoever.
His little speech to the animatronic, or finger puppet reptiles, is the single most funniest part of the film.And I've not even mentioned the rock monster who tries to kill our hero by hugging him.So, now we know, and probably the studio also knew that Ferrigno is the cheap Schwarzeneggar, who's great idea was it to have him fight himself at the end?
". Basically, you can take the comments I recently wrote on Lou Ferrigno's two Hercules movies and apply them to his Sinbad outing.
If possible, however, Sinbad of the Seven Seas is even more of a snooze-fest than those two films.
I could do the usual and mention the cheap special effects, the ludicrous plot, the laughable dialogue, or the really bad acting, but it seems a bit like piling on.
Suffice it to say that everything (and I mean everything) about Sinbad of the Seven Seas is about as bad as you'll see.One thing I will mention in a little detail is the music.
It's up to legendary courageous sailor Sinbad (a wildly grimacing Lou Ferrigno, who looks mighty buff and sports a wailin' white guy Afro) to recover four magical stones in order to break Jaffar's spell.
Moreover, the gorgeous Alessandra Martines looks absolutely ravishing as fair princess Alina, the equally lovely Stefania Girolami supplies extra yummy eye candy as the fetching, feisty Kyra, beefy female bodybuilder Teagan Clive gives an incredibly stiff performance as evil sorceress Soukra, and Leo Gullotta contributes an irritating comic relief turn as babbling, bumbling good wizard Nadir.
SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS (Enzo G.
One of my earliest encounters with "Euro-Cult" cinema was virtually two decades before the term itself came to be coined and it happened via a TV screening of an obscure, Italian-made, comical Arabian Nights fantasy entitled SINBAD AND THE CALIPH OF BAGHDAD (1973) which, unsurprisingly, I haven't seen again since.
Incidentally, while Italians usually dabbled more in Greek mythology than in tales from the 1001 nights – in fact, I would love to revisit both the afore-mentioned SINBAD film and the Steve Reeves version of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1961; which, again, is lost to me in the mists of time) someday – the character of Sinbad featured in at least two other Italian productions I know of – SINBAD AGAINST THE SEVEN SARACENS (1964; with Gordon Mitchell in the lead and which I've actually missed out on twice on TV recently) and, naturally, the film under review itself.Dubbed a "complete disaster" by Euro-Cult expert Marco Giusti, this was originally intended as a 4-part TV mini-series and was to have been directed by Luigi Cozzi (who had previously helmed the two HERCULES movies with Lou Ferrigno) but he had to be replaced due to conflicting commitments.
As it happened, incoming director Castellari (whom I've met personally while at the Venice Film Festival in 2004) entirely rewrote Cozzi's script but, despite the considerable budget spent on the production, it was actually shelved for two years before Cozzi was eventually recalled to re-edit Castellari's rough-cut!
John Steiner's outrageously over-the-top, eye-rolling performance – complete with elongated green fingernail and madly tilted framing – as (what else?) Jafar the wicked Vizier is something that has to be seen to be believed but is, in fact, one of the minimally bright spots in the film; the same applies to the actress playing Kyra, Sinbad's belated love interest (Stefania Girolami, who was not only director Castellari's daughter but this actually proved to be her swansong to acting before embarking on a directorial career herself!).
Future Italian TV personality Leo Gullotta, then, is embarrassing as the aptly named Nadir, a silly wizard/inventor who talks gibberish and is also Girolami's father.Lou Ferrigno's one-note performance in the title role extends only to his perennially bemused facial expression – even when required to play his evil doppelganger – making Sinbad seem unintentionally moronic, never more so than when he impulsively "frightens" Gullotta or when he is made to mouth such utterly terrible lines as "Gosh, you're sure beautiful" (to a would-be irresistible Amazon Queen) and "No, dice, huh?".
Besides, it's hard to believe that Alessandra Martines (who plays the kidnapped princess here) went on to become the wife of someone who, at his best, was considered one of the most sophisticated film-makers of his time – Claude Lelouch!; incidentally, she would eventually star in her own cult fantasy franchise – the numerous "Fantaghiro'" series directed by Lamberto Bava!
Listing the film's other flaws would be a Herculean task; suffice it to mention Dov Seltzer's hideously inappropriate electronic soundtrack, a hilarious sequence in which Sinbad is dropped into a snake pit but eventually escapes by making a rope out of assorted cobras(!) and the cheapskate usage of stock footage lifted from a much earlier peplum, HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964) as just three examples of the seemingly limitless ineptitude on display here; to the film's credit, it uncannily predates Disney's wonderful animated feature, ALADDIN (1992), in many respects – not least the appearance of Jafar and the Caliph!
Actually, I had originally intended to watch SINBAD THE SAILOR (1947) as well during the Christmas period but had to postpone that viewing due to time constraints and unforeseen family events.
Ultimately, the two HERCULES movies with Lou Ferroigno were also pretty awful but at least they showed a modicum of imagination and ingenuity at work and were undeniably lots of fun to watch and make fun of; SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS doesn't even have that mixed blessing to offer its unfortunate viewers..
Sinbad goes on a quest to foil the evil Jaffar's sinister plans.
- - - This is another diabolical creation from Luigi Cozzi and Lou Ferrigno, who both birthed a couple of cheesy Hercules adaptations in the 80s.
This one pretty much follows suit with their previous work by including tons of horrible looking special effects, bad acting, and Ferrigno acting through his biceps.
I can't recommend this, but if you like your fantasy all wholesome and enjoy a terrible movie every once in a while, it can be a laugh riot.*1/2 out of 4.
). Jaffar the evil vizir is in bad need of a orthodontist and overacts like a high school performer (in need of a paycheck, huh?).
Sets are more "lavish", if we can use that word for this C-tier thing, and coherent than the Hercules movies, but nowhere beyond low-budget C-tier level.