Mongo tales

[threemonkeys]

Old series get revived a lot these days. Sometimes it works - you know who I mean. But most of the time it does not. Back in 1980 Dino de Laurentiis made a movie of Flash Gordon. Flash has been an important part of my childhood - they showed all the old serials on TV on Sunday afternoons. I loved them. It was part of my early SF experience. The 1980 version was wonderfully faithful to those old movies and the comic strips too for that matter. I loved it.

Now there is a new Flash Gordon - the first episode has just been shown. It isn't quite so faithful. Consequently my reaction is more of a "meh". Perhaps it will get better, but all I can say right now is that it has a lot of room to go to recapture the style of earlier versions - I don't necessarily mean the exact look, just the sense of flamboyance. Even the rather flat animated version had more going in that regard than this pilot. One really really important factor - Flash Gordon should have rocket ships. Dimensional portals just don't cut it.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Dimensional portals? Flash? I need to see this just because the two don't fit together at all :).

BTW, would you know where I can get hold of the a DVD of the 1940s Phantom cinema shorts? There is a particular episode my mother never saw the end of, and it would make a totally brilliant present for her. It would also fit my current book-research. The trouble is, I'm not sure where to find this sort of thing. (I already googled, but probably ahd all the wrong keywords.)

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I tried again - I have found there's a two DVD set. So what I really need as advice is not-too-expensive places to look to buy it.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

You mean this one (http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Serial-Tom-Tyler/dp/B000051SH3/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-5178408-3762248?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1186889090&sr=1-2) I presume? I'm not really sure about cheap sources - you could try the "used and new" link on that Amazon page - there seem to be 20 hits there. Otherwise, I'd hit ebay.