Flash Gordon (1980)
Directed by Mike Hodges
A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
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If memory serves, this is more or less the same beginning as in the original movie serialization of "Flash Gordon," back in 1936.
The new Blu-ray comes with all the special features from the special edition DVD released a couple years ago, including an interview with comic artist Alex Ross, a look at the screenwriter and the first episode of the 1936 “Flash Gordon” serial.
As with the (more brazenly sexy) European 1960s fantasies Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik, also based on comics, there’s practically no attempt at realism, with extravagant Arabian-Nights costumes, Oz-like creature f/x, crayon-box sets, and sparkler-trailing model spaceships inspired directly by the iconic 1930s strips and serials.
Jones, last seen as Bo Derek's husband in "10") and Dale ( Melody Anderson ) crash-land in Ming's imperial space city.
Its jokey tone bewildered audiences, who didn't realize that Hodges and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. (who'd previously written Batman: The Movie and the 1976 King Kong remake, two other bastions of camp) were serving up pure, old-school escapism.