Movie Review: Sinbad and the Minotaur

This past weekend I was checking out the new releases on Video on Demand and was delighted to discover a new Sinbad movie, Sinbad and the Minotaur, which was released this past June.  I checked out the trailer, and though the movie didn't look fantastic, I thought it might be fun and since I had an evening to myself I thought I'd give it a go.





Oh the humanity.  What I hoped would be a fun B-movie Sinbad adventure was just two hours of my life that I'm never getting back.  The scenes in the trailer represent the best this movie has to offer, and I must confess that leading with a dancing girl shaking her booty definitely helped to sway my regrettable decision to rent this.    The story was boring, the costumes were cheesy, the fight scenes badly choreographed, and the acting... it was Gina Davis bad.

The casting was also disappointing.  You'd think that in this day and age it would be possible to find middle eastern actors to star in an Arabian fantasy.  Instead, Sinbad was portrayed by Manu Bennett, a crew-cut-sporting white guy whose heavy Australian accent killed the mood almost as much as the perpetual kissy-face he made throughout the movie.

Nobody kills my crew!  Let's suck face!

Them's kissin' words!

The slave-girl, Tara, played by Holly Brisely (shown above next to Sinbad) lacked any sense of exotic sensuality, and instead reminded me of nothing so much as a ditsy soccer-mom wearing a weird halter top.

Now, you'd think that in a movie entitled Sinbad and the Minotaur, there'd be an actual minotaur. Instead we are treated to a really goofy looking bull with glowing eyes and spiky skin.  By the time the 'minotaur' appeared the movie had already circled the drain a few times and was heading down the pipes, so the utter failure of the set-piece monster to evoke any awe only added insult to the already substantial injury.

I kept waiting for Tom Servo and Crow to climb into their front row seats and salvage this cinematic crap-fest, but sadly, any mocking commentary will have to come from the viewers themselves.

The only contribution that this movie makes to the legacy of the Sinbad movies is to demonstrate unequivocally that Harryhausen is still The Man, and that Caroline Munro reigns undefeated as the hottest slave-girl in movie history.

Sinbad and the Minotaur ranks alongside such treasures as Highlander II, Dungeons & Dragons, Cutthroat Island, and Castaway - movies that steal your life and give nothing in return.