Dr. Mordrid - Master
of the Universe: one of those video tapes I'd never part with. You don't
necessarily have to be an admirer of Jeffrey Combs ("Herbert West -
Re-Animator", Weyoun on DS9) to have fun with this nice little fantasy
popcorn flick.
Most convincing cast member is Yvette Nipar, who
really does a good job in this piece of sword and sorciery. Sort of Scully
meets Kidman, she's a much welcomed change from the bimbos usually
haunting movies of that genre.
While bad guy Kabal (Brian
Thompson) looks like a retired Wrestler who couldn't part with his stage
outfit, Jeffrey Combs tries his best to be a romantic hero. Well. He sure
looks yummy, but then, he always does. But he just ain't no hero. Let him
play villains, treachery vorta and mad scientist, even let him do comedy,
for he's got an outstanding comedy talent - but don't let the man do the
swoonies. Definitely one of his weaker performances; he looks like he
never really knows how to move or where to stand. Not entirely his fault -
even gods would have failed on this script!
But don't let this
keep you away from renting this movie next time you're at your local video
store. It's a fine B-movie, in the classical sense. You get blue jumpsuits
with capes, giant jewellery, cheesy sets, who could ask for more? Low
budget, but good entertainment, with some cool stop-motion effects,
causing a bout of nostalgia as they'll remind you on some Harryhausen
classics from the 50ies. More unreal dinosaurs were never seen! SFX
directly from the desk of Ed Wood.
As an extra for all fans of
Stargate SG-1, we get to see Jay Acovone as Tony Gaudio, a
non-stop-gum-chewing cop.
Jeffrey about the movie: "It borrows
heavily from DR STRANGE [Marvel Comics]. It was a very good experience. I
enjoyed making that movie, but I just wish that I had been a little
bit more involved in the creation of the character. Although I had been
talking with Charlie Band [producer and director] for quite a while, I
never got to look at a script, basically until we were about ready to go.
I wish that I had, because i would have liked to have had the
character be little bit more active. He could have used a little more
humor. I found myself just standing around reacting to what everybody else
was doing, as opposed to instigating things myself. That's a very
difficult thing to sustain as an actor, because 'act' implies acting - to
act, be active. Just to be reacting is not the same thing.
There's
talk of a second one. I told Charlie, 'I just hope I'll be a little more
involved, instead of standing on the sidelines a lot.' He said, 'Oh,
yeah, we'll shoot you out a
canon!" |
