WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM (1985) **

A young wizard goes on the run after his father is killed by a rival sorcerer.  Naturally, he loses the magic ring, the only thing that can stop the villain, almost immediately.  He bumps into a wandering warrior, played by Bo Svenson, who agrees to help him find the ring and avenge his father’s death.

Roger Corman’s Wizards of the Lost Kingdom is a bottom of the barrel sword and sorcery epic that is very nearly saved by the parade of inept monsters that populate the film.  We have a Chewbacca-like sidekick that looks like a man with carpet remnants glued all over him, a dwarf in a shoddy ape suit, a sexy sorceress who turns into a giant bug, rubbery looking reptile men, a garden gnome who knows magic, zombie soldiers, monsters that look like hand puppets, a baby pterodactyl, a Cyclops (and its bride), and even a mermaid.  Although the monsters are laughable, they give the movie a charm that many other similar genre efforts lack. 

Too bad all the action and sorcery nonsense are pretty awful, even for the genre’s low standards.  Director Hector Olivera doesn’t bring the same panache he brought to Barbarian Queen.  It’s a shame too, because with a couple of decent swordfights, this might’ve been an alright movie.

The film is also heavily padded with footage from other Corman sword and sorcery sagas like Deathstalker and Sorceress.  They’re supposed to act as flashbacks, but you know you’re in trouble when the flashbacks are much more polished (and entertaining) than the actual movie itself.  Corman, ever the miser, also reuses parts of James Horner’s score from Battle Beyond the Stars, which again sounds better than all the other music in the flick.