TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

tlooknbill I Remember "Dragonslayer" playing in constant rotation during the early days of cable TV as content filler to promote HBO subscriptions along the likes of "Beastmaster" which I'm sure we all remember getting sick of due to the annoying repetitive airplay. Oooh! Free HBO for a month!Saw "Dragonslayer" on Sundance today and couldn't keep from noting how well written, directed and photographed this movie was of its genre considering the limited technology of its day. I remember first seeing it at the theater having polished British production values and a realistic look and ambiance of fictional storybook medieval sorcery times similar to the first "Star Wars" movie and Ridley Scott's "Legend" but with a more lived in look. The extras, supporting cast, costumes, sets and landscape look hand picked and right for the era they were portraying.The plot is so well thought out and imaginative in how it portrays and deals with the menace of the dragon as well as how it ties together commentary on class and socioeconomic issues and a coming of age awareness of its youthful hero. It never drags or becomes long winded or boring. It moves along at a good pace.And Sir Ralph Richardson's minimalist, laid back acting style, commanding voice and bigger than life theatrical "aura" gives an amazing believability to the plot adding a special ambiance I didn't see in all of the "Lord of The Rings" flicks. It's the same theatrical ambiance the seasoned actor projects in another high British production value movie, "Time Bandits".I remember back then having to watch "Dragonslayer" several times on cable in order to distinguish listening through British spoken dialog the importance to the plot of the cryptic line... "ashes spread on burning water". I've never heard of a plot twist like that. What a cool way to deal with a insurmountable problem. "Star Wars" wasn't as sophisticated."Dragonslayer" is another one of those underrated perfect little movies that still holds up today. I actually like it more than "Star Wars".

Fluke_Skywalker Though a critical and commercial disappointment upon its release, 'Dragonslayer' has had quite a reputation renaissance in the years that followed, currently sporting an %85 fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 6.7 rating here on IMDb. With numbers like that, I purchased a used copy of 'Dragonslayer' with rather high hopes. Too high as it turned out.'Dragonslayer' features some incredible special f/x; particularly the creation of Vermithrax the dragon, but its paper thin characters get lost within a story that is told without even an ounce of energy or flourish.

AaronCapenBanner Mathew Robbins directed this fantasy adventure that stars Ralph Richardson as an aging wizard who, along with his young apprentice(played by Peter MacNicol) answer the plea of a besieged village which has been forced to sacrifice young virgin girls by lottery for many years to appease a dragon. When the King's daughter is chosen, he finds it intolerable, but unfortunately they are too late to save her, and their attempts at sorcery only prove temporary in stopping the dragon, who grows angry indeed at the attempt on its life...The dragon is impressively realized, though despite a good cast and gritty feel, the characters and story are unremarkable, even forgettable, though contains a surprisingly graphic death scene, which casts a pall over things.

Aaron1375 A strange fact that you see when looking at movies through the years is that movies featuring dragons for some reason never really perform all that well. Sure you have your semi hits like "Dragon Heart", but nothing that really sets the box office ablaze as it were. Take this one for instance, you can tell they put some good money into the film because at times the film looks terrific, however the movie did not really perform all that well at the box office. Granted it was rather dark at times and while there is a great fight between the hero and the dragon at a point in the film when he was trying to save that one girl who rigged the lottery so she would get chosen the ending fight was nonexistent. The story has a town and castle plagued by a dragon, people go to search for I think a wizard to help them get rid of said dragon. Well for some reason or other a man stabs said wizard and the wizard dies and they are now just left with the apprentice. The town holds a lottery and whose ever name is drawn is sacrificed to the dragon. Only females are drawn though. Like I said the dragon looks rather good and the one scene of the apprentice going to the lair is good too, but to often the movie bogs down and feels sluggish. Still, overall it was a somewhat good film that features a dragon so it was doomed to fail like so many other dragon movies.