Aiming for the tongue-in-cheek frivolity of the 1930s Buster Crabbe adventures, this big-budget fantasy from director Mike Hodges is great fun, providing you ignore the plot altogether and concentrate on the corny performances and cheesy special effects. Although Ornella Muti makes a wonderfully witty Princess Aura, it's Max von Sydow who runs away with the picture as the dastardly Emperor Ming. However, the sheer badness of Sam J Jones as Flash (whose dialogue had to be dubbed by another actor) and Melody Anderson as Dale Arden also adds to the charm of this expensive sci-fi pantomine.

A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.