Flash Gordon-Savior of the Universe Edition (1980)

"This campy extravaganza has it all - heroes, villains, beautiful women and high stakes...a guilty pleasure that everyone can enjoy.  Adam Smith, Empire
"...an acquired taste indeed, yet one which I find highly entertaining.  D.J. Nock, DVD Times

Editor's Note New York football star Flash Gordon vaults into outer space to battle the nefarious Ming, supreme ruler of the planet Mongo. Ming intends to conquer planet earth, and hunky Flash teams up with several of his daring female admirers, as well as the brilliant Dr. Zarkov, in an effort to thwart the monomaniacal evil-doer. Features a fun score by rock group Queen.

	Max von Sydow
	Melody Anderson
	Sam J. Jones
	Timothy Dalton
	Alex Raymond - Based On Characters Created By
	Bernard Williams - Executive Producer
	Danilo Donati - Production Designer
	Dino De Laurentiis - Producer
	Gilbert Taylor - Cinematographer
	Howard Blake - Original Music By
	Lorenzo Semple, Jr. - Screenplay
	Malcolm Cooke - Editor
	Michael Allin - Screenplay
	Mike Hodges - Director

USA Today
"...A guilty pleasure, thanks to Danilo Donati's great sets..." 07/30/1993 p.8D

Total Film
"...It all balances out as a sort of WIZARD OF OZ adventure experience..." 09/01/2000 p.110

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[D]elightfully unexpected....It's fast, fun, trashy in the best sense of the word, beautifully designed..." 09/01/2010

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[This] showcases Danilo Donati's production design in all its cheesy glory..." 10/01/2010

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Not since "Infra-Man" has a movie opened with a development more ominous than the crisis facing Earth at the beginning of "Flash Gordon." But Earth scientists are playing it cool: A NASA spokesman denies that there's anything unusual about an unexpected total eclipse of the sun. Unusual? That the moon is out of its orbit? Ha! It takes a mad scientist like Dr. Hans Zarkov to realize that the Earth is under attack, and speed to the rescue in his private space ship-with Flash Gordon and Dale Arden aboard as unwilling passengers...And there's a cliff-hanging showdown when the Hawk Men, looking amazingly like the winged angels in De Laurentiis' production as "Barbarella" (1968), engage the crew of a space ship in hand-to-hand battle (you know there's something lacking with the Ming technology when the commander of the rocket ship shouts "Stand by to the repel invaders!"). Is all of this ridiculous? Of course. Is it fun? Yeah, sort of, it is. - Roger Ebert