Customer Reviews

Cyclops

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Take a journey back in time, when Cyclops ruled the land. Roman citizens were not safe, herds were randomly decimated, and fear reined supreme...that is, until the great Caesar himself rid the land of the dangerous creatures!

Except for one. The last Cyclops roams the forested area around Rome, dining on unsuspecting thieves and brigands. A hungry trio spies a drying rack of wool, and pays for their dishonesty with their lives. Cyclops rips through two men, leaving one behind to warn the Emperor Tiberius. Corruption runs rampant through the Roman empire, and Tiberius, with his maniacal pattern of decision making and ambition, has run the gauntlet until his only the most violent `victory' games will do. He sends Marcus Romulus to capture Cyclops for use in the games. An enraged Cyclops kills many of the troops, yet Marcus emerges as a hero, inciting the jealousy of the Emperors' nephew. Popularity is no weapon against blind ambition, and the victory games pit man against Cyclops, friend against friend, and ultimately, freedom against tyranny!
This is one amazing movie. The CGI employed on Cyclops is remarkable, just as the costuming/props used on the Centurions is. A picturesque digital reconstruction of Rome serves as a suitable backdrop for this freedom motivated film. If there is any problem with the production, it is the Victory games pit used. I am not sure that an Emperor as fanatical as Tiberius is depicted as would settle for a small arena, but it does work in the film very well. Another realistic element is that of the format of the games with small side battles climaxing in a major brawl. The background element of the slaves being used in the games instead of building the nephews' villa addition is also factual. In times of war, households were cleaned out of slaves for war efforts and `freely' given when any Emperor demanded it.

The casting of Eric Roberts as Tiberius is excellent, while Kevin Stapleton as the imprisoned General is a good foil. Roberts gives a performance that reminds me of the BBC I, Claudius strongly. Stapleton is rugged, and is a fitting Roman centurion.

Roger Corman gives us a film that is a good addition to any sand and sandal collection. Great DVD jacket too!

[...]
Tim Lasiuta

This is really more of a historical movie than anything. Like a low-rent episode of Rome with a CGI monster. At least I assume a computer was involved in the creation of the monster, But it's so poorly done it might have just been done freehand. They must have been shooting in Norway or something. You can see the actors breath and it gets distracting. But I enjoyed Eric Roberts as Tiberius even if my fellow reviewers did not. I easily watched it all the through and I might watch it again sometimes. Ordinarily I would give a movie like this 3 stars. But read on....

About the Blu-Ray itself... OK it is 1080p and it looks rather good in general. And it has a decent 5.1 soundtrack. But it has nothing else. No extras. No sub-titles. No trailers. No popup menu. No top level menu. It just plays the movie. This is not what I expect with a Blu-Ray. If no trailer is available for this film then how about a few trailers for other films? And give us some menus. A bare-bones blu-ray production like this greatly reduces the chances for a 2nd viewing anytime soon. This is why I dinged it down to only 2 stars.

Despite its problems, it is not a bad value. As of this writing, it is $9.99 and that is not a bad deal. So while this is not headed for my top shelf, it is an reasonably nice addition to my library.

Lord, I wish I hadn't spent money on this thing. It's probably one of the worst movies I've ever spent ten minutes with. It ranks right there with "Red Sands", "Warbirds", and the re-make of "The Day The Earth Stood Still." Avoid this one at any cost...even if somebody wants to give you a copy. Want mine?

I bought "Cyclops" on a whim at a local Wal-Mart after seeing it on sale for $9.99. Turns out that there's a very good reason this thing was on sale for $9.99. It stinks. Not just a little, but a LOT. It was so bad that I literally couldn't watch any more than the first 30 minutes of it. After that, I took the disc out of my DVD player, but it back in the case, and then threw them both in the trash.

Where do I start? The "acting" was absolutely putrid. I wouldn't question you at all if you told me that the casting director for this turd of a movie went down one afternoon and picked people off the street for the starring roles. The screenplay itself was written by a 5th grader. The directing was horrible, as were the camera angles. Finally, the computer-generated special effects that generated the "Cyclops" himself weren't even remotely believable. All in all, this thing looks like it was made in about a week's time with a budget of about $200,000.

The California state legislature should pass a law banning Roger Corman from ever directing another motion picture again. As for Eric Roberts, it's sad to see that someone who's had a decent acting career has now been reduced to this. Seriously, Eric ... If you can't find anything better than this for work, maybe it's time to find a new career.

Trust me ... If you have an IQ of over 100, don't waste your money on "Cyclops".

This has got to be one of the worst movies ever. You can read on Eric Roberts (bro of Julia) face that he hates it as much as you will after just a few minutes. I couldn't finish this... It looks cheap, cheap, cheap.... Don't expect quality movie making.

Who doesn't love a good cyclops movie? I sure can't think of anybody, nor would I consider someone a true American if they didn't. Cyclopses(Sorry, I have never had to pluralize the word "cyclops" before) tend to only make fleeting appearances in a limited number of films, but thanks to Roger Corman's company, New Horizons, we get a whole film dedicated to a cyclops! And dig this, it actually takes place in ancient Rome! Throw Eric Roberts into the mix and it's a no brainer that you'll have to watch it.
In the film, a cyclops is posing a threat to Rome, so Tiberius Caesar(Roberts) orders it's capture. Hero soldier, Marcus, succeeds in capturing the ten foot beast, only to be thanked by having his promotion yanked out from under him and being accused of treason. Tiberius puts the cyclops into the gladiatorial games to compete with slaves and criminals who fight to earn their freedom or death. The cyclops is a vicious brute who rips people limb from limb, decapitates and devours them as well. He even bites off a kid's hand(he was asking for it though. You don't tease a cyclops)! As you might have already guessed, our hero Marcus will eventually be pitted against the cyclops, but Marcus learns that befriending a cyclops can be quite useful, especially if you're planning a rebellion.
This film was fun nonsense. Not historically accurate by any means, but why should it be? Roberts kinda sleepwalks through the evil emperor role, but that really doesn't bring the film down. Considering we're not dealing with a Schmuckheimer budgeted film here, I was actually quite impressed with the look of the film. The movie looks higher budgeted than it probably was and the set design wasn't bad at all. No, it wasn't HBO's Rome, but pretty good I must say. The cyclops itself is naturally a CGI creation, and an above average one for a straight to video film. He's not all that impressive looking to me, but I hate CGI anyway. You get used to his look before too long though. The cyclops becomes a bit more of a sympathetic character in the last act of the film. I think it's supposed to be emotional, but it's more comically amusing than anything.
Like I said, it's a fun little film and I'd recommend it to lovers of B films, horror films....and movies about gladiators!!
I wouldn't put much stock in folks who say this film is bad, has bad acting, writing, FX, etc. IT'S A MOVIE ABOUT A CYCLOPS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!

The fantasy genre has made some great movies. Tops among them were the films of Ray Harryhausen, the legendary stop motion animation director who found a way to make us believe everything from giant octopuses to flying harpies to skeletons carrying shields and swords. He introduced us to Jason and the Argonauts and took us on many voyages with Sinbad. Unfortunately there have been some who have taken his joy of the fantasy genre and turned it into crass film making that offers nothing to rejoice in.

I'm beginning to think that the SyFy channel is more detrimental to the genre than it is helpful. Sure, they make a good show like the STARGATE series or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. But when it comes to made for TV movies, SyFy turns out some of the worst drek possible. I swear, if I have to glimpse a preview for another snake movie I might go mad!

Using CGI effects for almost all of these films, they seem to misunderstand how to use it. Rather than take the painstaking time to make the items in CGI seem real, they rush it into production and toss out an inferior product that, with any luck, only the least jaded 10 year old will find a reason to enjoy. For those of us who grew up with Harryhausen or who loved the Rings trilogy, the movies SyFy is churning out leave much to be desired.

That being said lets take a look at CYCLOPS. I have fond memories of the Cyclops due to THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD made by Harryhausen (thus the connection to this film and reason I mentioned him earlier). Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this movie is that after watching it, you'll want to go back and watch those old films.

The movie takes place in ancient Rome where Emperor Tiberius (Eric Roberts) rules. The games in the coliseum are not what they once were and new entertainment is sought. The emperor is in luck when a Cyclops is discovered roaming the countryside, recently killing several travelers who attempted to rob him.

Tiberius sends out his most successful solider, General Romulus (Kevin Stapleton) to capture the beast at the request of his right hand man, a man who has more motive to hope for Romulus' failure than his success. Of course Romulus does capture the beast and take him back. Now the Cyclops can compete in the arena for all to see.

Rather than hail the conquering hero, Romulus demands satisfactory payment for his capture of the Cyclops, but word from the politician to the ears of Tiberius not only prevents this but also stops his being hailed as a hero as well. Further conniving results in Romulus being stripped of his rank and tossed into the gladiator pit to fight the monster.

While imprisoned, Romulus gets a glimpse as to the real personality of the beast. He is no more monster than man, simply tortured by all he meets and hungry. The pair become at least friendly and you realize early on that should they face off against one another they'll choose friendship over a fight to the death.

The big day arrives and after several battles the beast is released. So what happens? I won't spoil it for those who love cheesy fantasy films or low budget CGI happenings. But it is fairly predictable.

To try and calculate where this movie goes wrong is impossible. The sets are terrible, most notoriously the arena where the battles take place. Whereas most movies of this genre show huge arenas (even the low budget sword and sandal films of the 60s had huge arenas) I've seen small town football stadiums that are bigger than this one.

The acting? Is that what you would call this? Roberts has the ability to act, but here he seems content to increase his bank account and opting to take the money and run rather than perform. If you thought Kevin Costner's accent in ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES was bad, try out Roberts New York accent via ancient Rome. And Stapleton (who I guess stars on TV's ONE LIFE TO LIVE) should stick to soaps. He not only can't act, he has no star presence here at all. He looks completely out of place.

The Cyclops itself isn't too bad looking, just poorly rendered in CGI. The shadows rarely match properly, the quality of the set image when placed against the CGI is way off and in general the whole of the effects fails miserably.

If you rent this movie from say a Redbox for a dollar, find a way to get your money back. It is truly a bad movie and not even in the so bad its good category. And if SyFy continues to make movies like this, my guess is the ratings will decrease rapidly.

I guess if you put a not too good an actor in a bad movie, the not too good actor become's really bad..Eric Roberts was terrible in this..and the monster was not believable. Heck...he had more air time than Eric Roberts.<>LOn<>

when we needed you? What a stupid looking computer cyclops. Why does every movie today have to use computers for special effects? Computer effects have their place but only if they look real. The acting in the movie was also bad. The only real character I liked was the one Frida Farrell played (Barbara) and the only real reason I liked her was she looks good as a gladiator and has nice looking thighs. All that said: The plot is these roman soldiers capture a cyclops. He is put into a arena and that is all I'm going to say. For all the bad I just said for some reason however I liked it but if you want to see a better cyclops movie watch the 7th Voyage Of Sinbad.

This is the worst movie ever made!! I threw it in the trash! I wasted 1 hour of my life watching this garbage. Don't waste your money and buy this trash