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1974 - 105m.

With this second entry in the Sinbad series, effects maestro Ray Harryhausen returns to the world of mythological creatures that he was so passionate about. It is interesting that this flick falls short of its predecessor, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, even though it was made sixteen years later. The main reason for this is not the creatures but a slow script that suffers from poor pacing by saving nearly all of the action until the last act. This would have been acceptable had it been worth the wait but by the time the creatures finally came out, I had lost interest in the movie aside from Caroline Munro's cleavage. Between John Philip Law's accent and long periods where nothing happens, there is really not much to get excited about other than one of the more beautiful actresses of the 70s and the costumes that she is wearing. Aside from some impressive locations, this is the saving grace that makes a string of dull scenes a little more engaging than they deserve to be be and allowed me to be slightly forgiving of the flaws in the script.

In this adventure, Sinbad (Law) sets off to explore the lost continent of Lemuria with a beautiful slave girl and a dude with a golden helmet covering his entire head. The purpose of their quest is to retrieve the missing piece of an ancient puzzle that will provide much power to the person who deposits it in something called the Fountain of Destiny. As Sinbad and his crew make their way to the mystical land, they are pursued by an evil wizard named Koura (Tom Baker from the original "Doctor Who") who is racing them to take the power for himself. Koura is annoying in that he is constantly cramping Sinbad's style by doing things like making the ship's masthead come to life and attack the crew and sending a homunculus (that looks more like a gargoyle) to spy on Sinbad. Once everyone arrives at Lemuria, the action finally gets going with Sinbad and the gang encountering a tribe of green-skinned natives, a centaur, a griffin, and a six-armed swordfighting statue of Kali. Our hero must also battle an invisible opponent that is not nearly as threatening as the reanimated skeleton from the previous film.

Complaining about a Harryhausen movie is not something that I enjoy but the creatures in this movie were not featured as the stars of the show but almost like an afterthought. Seeing these creations relegated to minor roles was akin to watching a Jet Li movie where he only has one fight scene. I am not sure if this was due to budget constraints or if it was a conscious choice by the filmmakers but either way, I felt a little cheated. It is a real shame because everything is jammed into the last twenty minutes of the film and a battle between a centaur and a griffin almost feels like an afterthought. I would have preferred to see the creatures spread throughout the movie as it would have improved the pacing and also made it feel like Harryhausen's creations were the stars of the show rather than Law's weird accent and Munro's breasts. It was also disappointing that the creature effects were my least favorite of the Sinbad movies but this may have had more to do with the fact that they failed to make an impression than the effects themselves. The Kali statue and ship's figurehead were pretty cool and I wish that there were two more big scenes like these as opposed to the repeated use of the homunculus.

Fans of this series get very personal about their favorite Sinbad in the same manner than Bond fans are extremely opinionated on who the best Bond is. As with the Connery/Moore/Craig debate, I find that most Sinbad fans have a preference based on they first saw embody the role. This is because most of us were introduced to Sinbad at an age where we were young and impressionable and the first movie that any kid with an imagination would see in this series would hold a special place in their memory. For this reason, I have a hard time saying if John Philip Law was a better Sinbad than Patrick Wayne or Kerwin Mathews and I have my own bias. He does have some cool factor as he was in Danger: Diabolik and Barbarella but he is not who pops into my mind when think of Sinbad the Sailor. Look for Robert Shaw as the Oracle of All Knowledge. (Josh Pasnak, 1/26/14)

Directed By: Gordon Hessler.
Written By: Brian Clemens.

Starring: John Philip Law, Caroline Munro, Tom Baker, Douglas Wilmer.