Sometimes I will buy a DVD on a whim if it is cheap enough. This is one of those cases. I paid about 14 bucks including shipping. I am a fan of Sinbad films, but the ones I like are Ray Harryhausen made. I never even heard of this movie before. But I saw the cool cover and the bird with the chicks head on it. It also came with another movie so I went for it, figuring it couldn't be all that bad. It wasn't till after I watched it and researched it that I discovered it was actually the subject of an MST3K episode. I can only imagine the job that Joel and The Bots did on this barely watchable film. In fact I only learned afterward that it was originally a Russian film called 'Sadko' and had no connection to Sinbad. Now that makes perfect sense after watching it. 'Sadko' was made in 1953 and actually an award. But the dubbed version is what I am reviewing here. I can forgive it just for the simple fact it was made in 1953. The American distributors obviously tried to cash in on The Sinbad films. The movies even starts out with a reference to The Cyclops and The Roc. And that's where it ends any similar connection to the character of Sinbad. This 'Sinbad' is a bearded, singing and harp playing guy who is totally disrespected by the rich merchants of his home village. He has the best intentions of ending the poverty, starvation and overall plight of the people. He sets off of with several ships to find this bird of happiness that he has no clue where it lives to save his village. Great idea genius. He gets help from Neptune's daughter to finance the trip via some golden fish. His crewmen must past an important test to be admitted- they must chug a couple pints of wine and get punched without falling! They encounter some Vikings who don't seem all that formidable and then travel to India where cock fighting is a popular sport. In India they learn about a magic bird that sings of happiness. Sinbad wins a chess match to get the bird. And to be honest, the bird is the only cool effect in the whole film. A relatively hot chick who looks like Evil-Lyn from He-man with a bird's body. She is not the bird they are looking for but use her sleep inducing song to escape India. During a storm Sinbad jumps overboard as a sacrifice to Neptune and visits the non impressive undersea kingdom of Neptune which includes a dopey fish puppet and a cool octopus prop. Sinbad decides to give up the search for this bird and return to his true love. Upon his return he is welcomed back to the cheers of the villagers despite his failure to bring that bird home. He tells the people that happiness is here, at home or something like that. And somehow, the people accept this statement. What a load of BS. The guy fails and returns to the village under the same condition. What is so happy about that ?! I found this ending so contrived. I would definitely not recommend this movie. I only give 2 stars of 10 and that is because it was made in 1953.
Review of Sadko
