Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) Reviews

• Ray Harryhausen at his very best

  wvcruffler2005-02-13

  When I saw this in the theater as a 7 or 8 year old kid, I cried when it finished. It was by far the most captivating movie I had ever seen. I liked it better than Star Wars. The unbelievable stop-motion effects of Harryhausen still look great, even when compared to CGI. Things have not improved much. And Jane Seymore in the belly-dancer outfit! Good Lord! You must see this movie to believe it! The gold minotaur rowing the boat and the fight between the troglodyte and the saber-toothed tiger at the end stand out in my mind so strongly when I think of this movie.Get a copy of this movie, Jason and the Argonauts, and then Clash of the Titans and you have a fantastic Saturday afternoon of movie watching.

• Really cheesy but lots of fun

  Marta1999-02-07

  This is one of my guilty pleasures; everyone makes fun of me because I love this movie. Ray Harryhausen has been panned over this film, but I think he did a fantastic job. It's inventive and eye-catching, and the Minoton is a marvel. Patrick Wayne is strong-jawed and stalwart as Sinbad, but Jane Seymour, as the princess, obviously hadn't done much acting yet when she made this film. She's really bad in the role of Sinbad's love interest. She beat Bo Derek by 4 years in starting the cornrow hairstyle, and most of her hairdos in this movie are more interesting than her acting. The biggest hoot in the movie is Margaret Whiting as the evil Queen. She's got an accent that won't quit, but as the film goes on that accent begins to fascinate the viewer; she's a really good actress, which surprised me. Even when she turns herself into a seagull. It's the outlandish creatures, scenes, and settings that a Harryhausen movie always has that are its great charms, and this film is one of the most inventive of his career. Don't expect rocket science when you watch this, just expect to be royally entertained. The new Twilight Time Blu-ray release (December 2013) of the film is a wonder and highly recommended, but hurry and order it today...there are only 3,000 copies available.

• DVD release is a gem for Harryhausen fans

  midnightrane2001-12-29

  Okay, so the film isn't a masterpiece for anyone involved, but the DVD is worth the price for Harryhausen fans. I won't reiterate a fairly lame plot but to say that a prince is morphed into a baboon and Sinbad must find a way to correct this untimely development in order to repay a friend and win the hand of the lovely Jane Seymour. All in all, the film turns out to be rather entertaining once Patrick Troughton makes it on-screen to flesh-out the dialogue. Overshadowing the movie's multiple shortcomings, however, is the always inspiring stop-motion work of Ray Harryhausen. The Trog and sabre-tooth are two fine creations and while we don't see anything on par with the 7 skeletons in "Jason & the Argonauts" or Medusa from "Clash of the Titans" there are some great moments with other creatures. While to be treasured as one of Harryhausen's last films the DVD also includes the added bonus of "The Ray Harryhausen Chronicles", an in-depth documentary narrated by Leonard Nimoy featuring a bio and interviews with today's FX masters. This and other features combine to make an otherwise average fantasy/adventure film worth a look--if you're a Harryhausen fan and you've got a DVD player. For all the extra features, I'll give the DVD a 6/10.

• 7/10 ~ 4/5 ~ Imperfectly Wonderful Ray Harryhausen Fantasy Fun.

  Doctor_Mabuse2005-03-10

  Sinbad the Sailor voyages to the mythic northern realm of Hyperborea to restore a caliph from an evil witch's transformation. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the follow-up to the classics The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, is an uneven conclusion to Ray Harryhausen's celebrated "Sinbad Trilogy". The troubled production began with a draggy script, budgetary restrictions and an inexperienced director; the film as released suffers from choppy editing, over-length and routine music scoring. One animation highlight (the giant walrus) is obscured by an optical snowstorm. The attractive cast performs listlessly and the villain is campy rather than truly menacing, although former "Doctor Who" Patrick Troughton is delightful as a befuddled wizard. Yet, for all its flaws, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger remains an entertaining escapade in the old-fashioned Saturday-Matinée tradition. Costuming and settings are colorful and the film looks handsome in widescreen. The quest for the mystical Shrine of the Four Elements has a particularly epic quality with the usual eclectic blend of mythical elements set against the backdrop of the Arabian Nights. Most importantly, Harryhausen's realistic stop-motion animation is as extraordinary as ever, with two of the animated-puppet creatures -- Kassim the Baboon and Trog the Troglodyte -- successfully functioning as actual communicative characters within the body of the story. Other wonders include insectoid demons, an over-sized mosquito, Minaton the Brass Minotaur and the saber-tooth tiger of the title. Genuine movie fantasy is a rare commodity, and Ray Harryhausen's vision and conviction shine through the circumstances of production to make this a satisfying final visit to the land beyond Beyond.

• For children when wonder and Imagination were still in vogue!

  lambiepie-22003-06-28

  (Minor Spoilers) Let's be honest and a tad realistic about this film, shall we? By TODAY'S standards, this is a "cheesy" kinda film compared to what technology we've got. And I think at the time of this release we had gotten "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Wars" so our expectation levels were running higher for "special effects" and "whimsy" than this. But I still can get entertainment out of this film. How? By remembering how old I was when I saw it and WHOM I was with when I saw it. My family. I was a child. This film wasn't in my all time top ten, but it was...fun. It was one of those movies local channels threw on Sunday afternoon before or after a televised ball game..or when a ball game was rained out. Come on, admit it..you remember! And that's the point. This film's special effects were nice..not spectacular..not even up to Ray Harryhausen's standards, but the Harryhausen mark was there which made it entertaining (Admit it, you LOVED the walrus scene!! How 'bout that Cyclops?!?! As a child this was all good! You remember!!). For very young girls, this Sinbad was REALLY nice to look at back then. For the very young guys, so was Miss Jane Seymour and Miss Taryn Power. Then there was the story which was kinda fun, the adventure which was kinda whimsical and the happy ending where the bad guys got theirs'. This was done at a time of assuming children would love this kinda stuff. Back then, more would have. Now, most children don't even think "Spy Kids" can give them a buzz. This movie is about childhood and remembering what it was like to have an imagination and watch a story unfold for nothing but the sheer enjoyment of it...the fun of eating "Good 'n' Plenty", "Snowcaps", "Malted Milk Balls" and Popcorn without thinking about calorie content to make this even more fun to watch...and the "eye candy" of Wayne, Seymour and Power help a so-so story that's really better than a lot of stuff I've seen today that they charge ya $10 a ticket for! Parents may not have liked it as much as the children but that too is part of the fun! Have a heart when watching this. Watch this as a "fun" romp....as remembering when families watched shows together (..or in my case my dad mumbling under his breath about how the game was due on and he had to sit through this 'crap' first!), the pre-teen tingles of watching a handsome Wayne, young Seymour and/or Power (...ya know...before having breast implants and weighing 95 pounds was mandatory in Hollywood for women to do this kind of film work?!?) and telling your parents you were REALLY interested in the story...really. Maybe I've got a more "nostalgic" view about this film..its because I'm not looking for academy award winning material with this kind of film, but it does its job of...entertaining...and if you have children and want them to be children for a tad longer, this may be the film fare for them. Or just for you, if you want to curl up with some popcorn and remember "the good old movie fluff days" where special effects were done by hand and stop motion photography by the "grand-daddy" of the genre and a Sinbad movie where Sinbad actually looked like you might imagined him to look like back then and evil characters who were evil and got theirs....pretty much simplified. Open your mind and when you have a moment...enjoy. Don't take it seriously just sit back... watch...and HAVE FUN..with your children, as a family.