Flash GordonMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Flash Gordon."

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Avg. Critic Score: 63 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
12 Iffy for 12+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 80
    Empire | Adam Smith

    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. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    "Flash Gordon" is played for laughs, and wisely so. It is no more sophisticated than the comic strip it's based on, and that takes the curse off of material that was old before it was born. Is all of this ridiculous? Of course. Is it fun? Yeah, sort of, it is. Read full review

  • 70
    Chicago Reader | Dave Kehr

    Better than it might have been, given the limitations of this kind of brand-name filmmaking. Hodges doesn't shirk his duties, and though the film lapses too often into easy facetiousness, much of it feels surprisingly substantial. The action moves smoothly and logically, finding a rhythm that engages your attention despite the patent lack of inspiration and genuine commitment. Read full review

  • 63
    The Globe and Mail (Toronto) | Jay Scott

    The frantic pleasures of this film add up to what used to be considered good fun; good Saturday morning fun; good Saturday morning fun to eat pancakes and pour maple syrup by; good fun that, once the day begins, is good fun soon forgotten. It's a pity Flash Gordon can't be screened at the breakfast table. [6 Dec 1980, p.E7] Read full review

  • 50
    TV Guide |

    The only good thing about this would-be camp version of the classic 1936 serial is the impressive production design by Danilo Donati. Read full review

  • 38
    Boston Globe |

    If you enjoy laughing at a movie, rather than with it, then you might get a few chuckles. [18 Dec 1980, p.1] Read full review

View more reviews for Flash Gordon on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 12+ Sci-fi comic-strip movie is too intense for younger kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this adaptation of an old newspaper sci-fi comic strip has gruesome scenes; a cyborg’s eyes are ripped out, and another slain machine-man rapidly decays. Expect abundant ray-gun fire, disintegrations, and explosions and fires, as well. Characters are stabbed or impaled or whipped, drawing blood (not always red). There's an apparent execution via gas chamber. There are a few scantily clad harem-type girls and some non-explicit sexy talk. Drinking an intoxicating alien beverage is made to look pleasurable. Some minor profanity.
  • Families can talk about the film’s way-out retro style and lighthearted attitude. Is it entertaining, or do younger viewers prefer their comic fantasy characters to be fashionably dark, tough, and brooding (as Batman has become)?
  • Is the violence here necessary? Does it add to or take away from the story?
The good stuff
  • educationalvalue true0 Educational value:  
  • message true3 Positive messages: Declaration about the unconquerable nature of the human (Earthling) spirit. Ming keeps his conquered moons under control by encouraging them to fight each other; Flash helps unite some of the captive kingdoms of Mongo to fight against the tyrant.
  • rolemodels true1 Positive role models: Simplistic notions of good (Flash) and evil (Ming) here, although there are other characters, like the Robin Hood-ish Prince Barin and Ming’s Flash-infatuated daughter Aura, who seem to flip back and forth. Though people of color are part of Mongo’s empire, they don’t play very big roles.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Combatants are killed unrealistically by ray-gun blasts (from...crossbows?!) and impalements. Hand-to-hand fighting, which sometimes is so hilariously fake that the blows barely connect. Characters stabbed to death (exhibiting a small amount of blood which is blue or green, but never red). Other characters are whipped bloody. Threat of death by gas. Several cyborg-like humanoid baddies dissolve, remove body parts, or have them ripped out.
  • sex false2 Sex: Ming lusts after Dale Arden and fondles a slave girl. Talk of Ming “making love." Alien girls wear revealing metallic bikinis and skin-tight outfits. Occasional double-entendres are likely to go over the heads of youngsters.
  • language false1 Language: ”Damn,” "hell," “bastard.”
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: People magazine used as a prop.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false1 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters drink an intoxicating and evidently enjoyable space beverage. A fleeting joke about being “on the right pills” (apparently in reference to steroids or energy-boosters).
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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