KnotMissPriceless
Why so much hype?
VividSimon
Simply Perfect
Cleveronix
A different way of telling a story
bkoganbing
Playing the title role of Atlas and certainly having the physique for it is Michael Forest best known for playing the God Apollo on Star Trek prime. He gets himself involved in a civil war where one army is besieging a city state.When a single combat winner take all duel is arranged the besieger goes out to look for a champion and just by coincidence the Olympic Games are being held. Frank Wolff finds Michael Forest and he will face Christos Exarchos the prince of the city. When Forest beats Exarchos but doesn't kill him, Wolff should have thought right then and there that this will mean trouble for him.Roger Corman produced Atlas. It was his attempt to make a Peplum, sand and scandal less than an epic. The European players stroll rather listlessly through the film. But Frank Wolff, God Bless him is having a whale of time playing Proximades the tyrant who shows pieces of what Peter Ustinov did with Nero in Quo Vadis and later on Christopher Plummer in the Fall Of The Roman Empire. Wolff is so infectiously evil, he makes a mediocre film worth watching.
chow913
Scariest Villain Ever... Proximates!!! What the f......... heck is it with all these negative reviews? It's a good movie. It sounds like these other reviewers didn't even watch the whole film and are just trashing it as Roger Corman based on internet rumors.Don't worry, Roger Corman had little or nothing to do with this film, otherwise it wouldn't be good. Don't worry. It's NOT Corman.Villains that truly frighten me to think such evil could exist in the human soul or on screen, have always been Chris Sarandon as a rapist in 'Lipstick', Jane Badler as Diana in 'V' and Louise Fletcher or Michael Ironside in ANYTHING.Now make way for Frank Wolff (no, not my congressman) as Proximates! (Prox-ah-me-tays) Proximates doesn't start out as a villain, just a Roman style slime ball. This is why 'Atlas' has rather a slow start the first 30 minutes. Proximates hasn't shown his true evil.The army of Proximates is involved in long siege of a plateau inhabited by a people whose leader Telekos wears a yamaka. This is obviously based on the historic Roman siege of the Jews at Masada.Noble and just Telekos hopes to end the long siege, and agrees to surrender the city if any champion can defeat his son Prince Indros in a duel to the death.Proximates has ten days to find such a champion. He uses this as an excuse to take some RR and attempt to get back into the toga of his former girlfriend Candia (Barboura Morris) at the Olympic Games, (or the Coliseum, or whatever).There they meet a wrestler Atlas. (See he's strong. Get it?) Proximates and Candia set out to con Atlas into fighting as their champion but get a rude surprise. Atlas isn't just strong he's an educated stand up philosopher at the forum.Yes, I too was reminded of Mel Brooks as stand up philosopher is 'History of the World: Part 1.' "Oh, a bullsxxx artist." Being intelligent, Atlas disapproves of wars of conquest, and killing in general. He accepts Proximates offer only to prove that he can win the duel and the city without taking any human life.Sure enough Atlas defeats Prince Indros, sparing his life.With the city now at Proximates disposal, Atlas sees first hand his true evil and the necessity for war. A war to free the city from Proximates evil grip.As I said, it has a rather slow first 30 minutes, which why the other reviewers here just gave up on the whole film. But it really is a powerful story with powerful characters which makes up for the total lack of large scale battle scenes in the movie genre of large scale battle movies.Frank Wolff as Proximates is something you have to see to believe. It's a great film! The best evidence for Roger Corman's lack of involvement is changing sets and locations. Throughout his whole "career" Corman's "film making" was infamous for not changing sets and merely repositioning the cameras around the same location claiming to was someplace else.Remember, 'Teenage Caveman' where every village was always just the same rock filmed from different angles? Or 'The Undead' where a 12x12 set comprised an entire medieval kingdom? Or the wild western 'Gunslinger' where every town was just the same western set (complete with phone lines) filmed from different angles? I digress. None of this silliness is in 'Atlas' so don't be frightened by these false internet rumors. 'Atlas' is happily Roger Corman free.
MARIO GAUCI
B-movie king Corman dabbled in most commercial genres: this was his attempt at a historical epic – the result is one of his worst films! Even if I watched a public-domain pan-and-scan version, the film never promised to be much – it's basically at the level of a third-rate effort from the contemporaneous peplums emanating from Europe! Lead Michael Forest is as bland and wooden as they come; Barboura Morris makes for a fetching heroine, but her attitude and looks are too modern to convince as a woman of Ancient Greece; Frank Wolff, however, is highly entertaining relentlessly hamming it up as the chief villain. The narrative is fairly typical (and inane): the titular muscle-man hero is appointed by self-proclaimed tyrant Wolff to oust power from a rival country; eventually, he sees the error of his ways and determines to turn the tables – with the help of Morris, Wolff's femme fatale-ish companion who, naturally, also has a change of heart because after she has fallen for our man Atlas! I don't know if it was the nature of the print involved or simply the fact that Corman had no money to accommodate sound effects but, hilariously, at a couple of points we're presented with scenes which obviously demand this but nothing transpires: two men are supposed to blow their trumpets prior to a combat and, later, a bevy of dancing girls prance around sans any musical accompaniment at an 'orgy'. The action sequences are equally lame: ubiquitous Corman presence Dick Miller turns up in so many shots at the climactic struggle that one is almost inclined to believe that he won the battle single-handedly! We love Corman for his unfailing knack to spot and promote burgeoning talent but, other than his classic (and classy, for their miniscule budget) Poe adaptations, his own directorial output is invincibly erratic...
John Seal
Trust Roger Corman to go all the way to Greece, shoot in widescreen against a backdrop of real ancient monuments, and STILL end up producing the cheapest looking sword and sandal 'epic' of them all. If you squint hard enough the battle scenes might start to look vaguely impressive. Only Frank Wolff's ripe performance as the evil Praximedes provides much entertainment.
