Flash Gordon (2007)

Badly written, badly cast and done on the cheap in the Canadian woods, Flash is the kind of fantasy toss-off that gives sci-fi, and Sci Fi, a bad name.

The show's overall tone is less campy than the Flash Gordon movie, but it's more mature, and entertaining, than the old "Battlestar Galactica" or "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" series.

The show, approximately the zillionth attempt to put Flash and his friends on the big or small screen, isn’t bad, particularly; it’s just not very, excuse me, flashy.

The whole story is over the top, but it's mitigated by the sense of humor it has about its own broad elements. The acting is serviceable enough and--to Rosenthal's credit in the pilot--surprisingly consistent. What the plotting lacks in cohesion and suspense, the production often compensates for in visual appeal.

As light summer fare, most of it done with a campy wink at the camera, Flash Gordon is by no means unbearable. But the fonder one's memories of the original, the more likely the viewer will want to send this Flash back.

For all the comic-book fans who can't get enough of grown-ups carrying ray guns and discussing the destruction of planet Earth, pretty lame effects and super-stiff acting keep this from being really great camp.

This contemporary remake is cheerfully B-movie cheesy--watch an alien attack a bowling alley--but also stubbornly flat, settling for cute when sublime camp would be preferred.

As played by Johnson, this 21st Century Flash is likable enough, and the plot occasionally achieves a tick-tock level of efficiency, but there’s little else to recommend this series.

They've assembled a cast suffering a major charisma deficit and given them wooden, cliche-riddled dialogue to deliver.

Even in this sporty new vehicle the old codger looks a little unsteady on his pins--lacking the requisite wit, excitement or sense of adventure to survive for long in this dimension, much less the next.