Tonight at Cal Anderson Park, Three Dollar Bill Outdoor Cinema continues its summer series of beloved ’80s trash with 1980’s Flash Gordon.
I have never seen 1980’s Flash Gordon, but every bit of info I learn about it makes me think I should. Specifically:
*Leading man Sam Jones posed nekkid for Playgirl! And eyewitnesses say his performance in Flash Gordon is “bulge-o-rific!”
*Soundtrack by Queen!
*Villainy by Max Von Sydow!
*An 83% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with the movie mag Empire opining, “This campy extravaganza has it all—heroes, villains, beautiful women and high stakes. Laughably bad and fantastically good all at once, this is a guilty pleasure that everyone can enjoy.”
If all that’s not enough to entice you, there’s this:
Gay nerd herd!
Tonight a bunch of gaymers are meeting up to watch Flash Gordon in Cal Anderson Park. We’re meeting at Molly Moons for ice cream at 8. About 20 people are going so far but it would be great to get the word out to more gay nerds. I’ll be wearing a Flash Gordon tshirt!
Gay nerd herd! Movie starts around 9pm, when the sun goes down. Bring blankets for the grass (and vice versa). Free!
I’m amazed you haven’t seen this, Schmader. It’s so amazingly painfully good and awful at the same time. I feel like I saw it a million times on cable growing up.
+Richard O’Brien to boot!!!
Flash IS the saviour of the universe…
ah-HAH.
Spoiler Alert: The movie could have ended 63 seconds into it had only Ming not said, “I like to toy with my planets before I destroy them” and pushed the damn button. Great movie.
The hawk-men…OMG, King Vultan and the hawk-men! Gotta love their fake-ass wings.
I saw it when I was 10 and loved it. I saw it again last year at the age of 38 and loved it on a totally different level. It’s fun, doesn’t take itself seriously and actually has the cool 1930’s Sci-Fi feel to boot. And Topol, Timothy Dalton, Brian Blessed… Awesome!
This movie will shake you to your soul!
God, I remember that Sam Jones layout–I think it’s the first Playgirl I ever girded up my loins to buy. Not specifically motivated by his inclusion; that was just the issue on the newsstands that month. He did have a nice sword, though. Never saw the movie; wish I lived in Seattle so I could join the herd.
HAWKMEN! DIIIIIIIIIIIVE!
Brian Blessed is the greatest actor ever. How can you not love this mother fucker?
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Wow. Wikipedia says Sam Jones’s Playgirl appearance was in 1975. That would make me a pimply teenager furtively checking it out at the drugstore rather than marching up and slapping it (the magazine) on the checkstand.
This is an absolutely Godawful movie. But fun. And WTF, the price is right.
Plus Ornella Muti as Princess Aura. The idea that any heterosexual man would choose good-girl Dale Arden over her is pure science fiction.
One of my all time favorite movies. Spectacularly bad, cheesy, sexy, and wonderful at the same time. Flash in those itty bitty black shorts made my teenage gay self just tingle all over. And everyone in it is in some kinda drag. I have seen it at least once every few years since it hit cable in the early 80’s. Even bought the DVD (and I rarely ever do that – it’s one of 8 I own). To this day I tell people I want my ‘own private pleasure moon’. Gayest. Movie. Ever. And yet never skimped on the boobs either! Wish I could be there!
Gosh golly I forgot how hot Ornella Muti was in that movie. Thanks for reminding me Flash.
This villian’s demise at the movie’s end is by far the best Freud-style repressed homosexual desire/wish fufillment/death-gasm ever captured on celluloid! Highly recommended for that alone.
Director Dino DeLaurentis was so pissed at Sam Jones for the Playgirl spread that they had a very public feud about it and DeLaurentis swore he would blacklist Jones from the movie industry. Apparently he was pretty successful as Jones never had another major film role again.
Emporer Ming awats!
Somehow this is one of the movies that led to Timothy Dalton becoming Bond?
For the bears out there:
Brian Blessed in leather – ’nuff said.
@16 —Sounds apocryphal to me seeing as the Playgirl spread was made 5 years before this movie was made, and the guy has been working ever since….
Jones actually clashed with the director, who retaliated by overdubbing his husky Southern drawl with a vapid male ingenue trill.
Comic Geek Alert:
I believe that Brian Blessed has been cast as Odin in the Thor flick coming out next year.
No!!! Not the BORE-WORMS!!!!!!
i think the paucity of Sam Jones credits would have more to do with his lack of talent than any sort of DiLaurentian blacklist…