Twisted with a great anti-hero!

Production Year: 1989 - Comedy - Director: Terry Jones - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over more

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Tim Robbins stars as Erik the Viking, a thoughtful man in a violent time who does not enjoy killing and raping like the rest of his people. When he accidentally kills a woman while...
more...defending her, he reevaluates his life and goes off in search of the Horn Resounding, which has the power to bring him to his true home--and end the Age of Ragnarok, bringing peace to the kingdom. To get there he has to lead a pathetic group of seasick sailors through the Gates of the World and into sunlight, on their way to Valhalla. But all threatens to come undone when the local blacksmith plots to sabotage the journey to protect his lucrative weapons business. The film includes wonderfully unexpected turns from Mickey Rooney and Eartha Kitt and an especially funny performance by John Cleese as a torturing warlord who enjoys having men killed in myriad creative ways. The film is more similar in tone to Terry Gilliam's JABBERWOCKY than to any of the Monty Python farces.

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All Erik The Viking (Special Edition) reviews

Twisted with a great anti-hero!

A review by mamadee on Erik The Viking (Special Edition)
June 15th, 2005

Author's product rating: Erik The Viking (Special Edition) - rated by mamadee

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Some inspired comedy moments
Disadvantages:	No consistency, and feels a little long in places

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

'Erik' the Viking is cute and has some absolutely fantastic moments but the film overall wasn't as consistently funny as I expected. There were quite a few sections that seemed to wander along pointlessly, which was a pity!

Erik the Viking (Tim Robbins) gathers warriors from his village and sets out on a dangerous journey to Valhalla, to ask the gods to end the Age of Ragnorok and allow his people to see sunlight again. Particularly noteworthy are Jones himself as a king who quite literally only sees what he wants to see and John Cleese who has a hilarious cameo as Halfdan the Black who runs a torture chamber in his spare time. Also watch out for the Japanese slave driver, he is one of the highlights for me. This film is a hilarious Pythonesque satire of Viking life.

Tim Robbins was fine in a cutesy, little boy way which is, I guess, what he was supposed to be. Cleese's role seemed uninspired with only brief moments of the genius we have come to expect. It was however a fun film particularly seeing Tim McInnerny pre-Blackadder-"Captain Darling" days and Antony Sher made an excellent "trickster" Loki.

Despite the negatives, it's certainly worth watching at least once, if only for those inspired comedy moments it contains. A must for the collection of any Monty Python fan.