Critic Reviews
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Ian Berriman, SFX Magazine
While it can't hope to achieve its grand ambitions, it's smart, it has some sharp dialogue, and the surrealism-on-a-shoestring visuals are undeniably striking.
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Steve Crum, Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers
Pretty contrived sci-fi with leathery Sean Connery.
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Gregory Weinkauf, ÜberCiné
Magnificently sensational. Love it!
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Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
This is simply not your everyday sci-fi/fantasy flick.
Featured Audience Ratings
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Completely insane film that has Sean Connery running with diapers. It deserves a somekind of cult-status because the trippiness of it, but does that make it a good film or even watchable? I think not.
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An underrated futuristic social satire that is certainly quite self-indulgent but also more thought-provoking and smart than it appears to be. The mind-blowing visuals and the bizarre dialogue contribute to give shape to a surrealistic allegory that is both fascinating and original.
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An "outlander" mortal killer stows away inside a flying head to reach "the vortex," a land of bored immortals who view him as either a threat, a curiosity, or a savior. The crazy mix of high camp (Sean Connery running around in a red diaper), serious speculative… More
An "outlander" mortal killer stows away inside a flying head to reach "the vortex," a land of bored immortals who view him as either a threat, a curiosity, or a savior. The crazy mix of high camp (Sean Connery running around in a red diaper), serious speculative sci-fi and budget psychedelic effects could only have been made in the 1970s; it's a highly entertaining cult movie time capsule.
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This is the weirdest sci-fi movie of the 70s, I think. The story is confusing until the end, and then you realize it was really stupid anyway. I hated it.
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Cocaine+hippie propaganda: this.
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So this is what happens when you give a director free reign after they make a really good film about rape, kayaking and banjo-playing.
You get, apparently, Zardoz.
While it is worth watching sheerly for the odd imagery, this movie feels way too much like an extended version of the… More
So this is what happens when you give a director free reign after they make a really good film about rape, kayaking and banjo-playing.
You get, apparently, Zardoz.
While it is worth watching sheerly for the odd imagery, this movie feels way too much like an extended version of the final sequence of "A Boy and his Dog"
So, to clarify: take one part Wizard of Oz, another part Planet of the Apes, and mix it in with the 1960 Time Machine. Then put Sean Connery in it.
Some say there is a good deal of philosophy supposedly going on in this movie. For me, it seems more like someone face-planting while still talking incoherently the whole way down. Philosophic? Sure. Confusingly pompous? Absolutely. A happily cheesy movie otherwise? Yep. So if you want to see Sean Connery flying around in a giant stone head that spits out guns to horse-back riding asexuals in the far future... well then, apparently this is your movie.
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Really strange and weird vision of a future world.
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This is by far one the most bizarre film I have ever witness. I'm just completely baffled that such a movie was made.
Zardoz does have a plot, but it's told in a such a bizarre manner you'll still be confuse even when it's explained to you. It started with… More
This is by far one the most bizarre film I have ever witness. I'm just completely baffled that such a movie was made.
Zardoz does have a plot, but it's told in a such a bizarre manner you'll still be confuse even when it's explained to you. It started with Zardoz floating head who for some reason has a mustache and beard drawn on with markers talking to you. Somehow the movie gets even weirder, literally in the first ten minutes you'll see a giant stone head say "The Gun is good! The penis, is, EVIL!" and then vomits out guns. Then you'll be asking how did Sean Connery get inside the giant stone head? Why are there nude women in plastic bags? Why did Sean Connery shoot Zardoz? All in the span of ten minutes you'll be confuse and have no idea what's going on. Zardoz is chuck full of moments that'll leave you baffle. There literally a scene where a scientist shows Sean Connery porn so they can study him getting an erection. There's also another scene that has Connery in a bridesmaid outfit and throwing woman in a pile of hay in another scene. Confused? You should be, yet somehow the plot makes sense and is interesting an a weird way. The longer you watch Zardoz the less sense it makes, unless of course you're drunk than it'll make complete and utter sense.
The plot of Zardoz is simply something that has to be seen to believe. It's truly hilarious writing, like how Connery character could read books even though he told us he never seen a book in his life. Or the hilarious moment where Connery is momentarily blind and gets tangled in yarn, in which a character panic and says "He's out of control". Though my favorite bizarre moment is when Connery is running away from the immortals from I can comprehend, and hides behind some rock shape house or something. When out of no where he's surrounded by people who all want to taste Connery, clearly the writers had to be smoking something in order to come up with Zardoz. Putting plot aside, the imagery is absolute the strangest thing I've seen. It's like director John Boorman is intentionally trying to mess with your head. The acting is laughably bad, it's a miracle Sean Connery had a career after this movie. Finally, who can forget about the ending. I honestly have no idea what make of it, it's simply Sean and some women sitting in the same place until they become nothing but dust. What does the ending symbolizes, I got no idea and I've watched the damn thing.
Zardoz is a bizarre filmed that doesn't make much sense, yet satisfies at some level. If you want something strange, hilarious, and original, go into Zardoz.
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I HIGHLY recommend this movie for it's cheesiness (cheesyness?). At no point did I know what was happening but with Sean Connery in a Speedo and a guy with half of his face aging more than the other this movie is GOLD! Also TONS of pointless nudity.
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It starts off as ridiculously bad fun (Sean Connery spends 95% of the movie in a fucking loin cloth), but as the film progresses it turns into a rather pretentious affair with crystals and weird rich immortal people. After the endless barrage of weird imagery, a fun play on words… More
It starts off as ridiculously bad fun (Sean Connery spends 95% of the movie in a fucking loin cloth), but as the film progresses it turns into a rather pretentious affair with crystals and weird rich immortal people. After the endless barrage of weird imagery, a fun play on words (hint: its in the title!) and "exploration" into the human psyche we are left with the rather simplistic message that all things have to die in order to lead a fulfilling life . . . wow man . . . deep.
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I always thought of Zardoz as Barry Lyndon seen through the eyes of someone on a super-acid-freakout. Or maybe it's just Godspell during a bad trip. I dunno. I dislike this movie with a pure and holy passion, which is kind of strange considering the sort of sci-fi/fantasy cheese… More
I always thought of Zardoz as Barry Lyndon seen through the eyes of someone on a super-acid-freakout. Or maybe it's just Godspell during a bad trip. I dunno. I dislike this movie with a pure and holy passion, which is kind of strange considering the sort of sci-fi/fantasy cheese I enjoy on a regular basis. This though, this, it's a Monty Python film that Eric Idle and crew forgot to show up for. Anyway, if you enjoy watching any of the following things then you may enjoy this film...good luck to you;
- smarmy British folk in fruity costumes prancing around the English countryside (which is haphazardly strewn with crap as to make it appear "futuristic")
- Charlotte "Ice Queen" Rumpling talking about auto-erotica and other unpleasant details regarding Sean Connery's junk.
- Sean Connery in a red diaper.
- Films that feel like they're five hours long.
Read all 11 featured audience ratings
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