Found Tales of an Ancient Empire on Netflix streaming under the title "Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire".  It's a sorta-sequel to the 1982 film The Sword and the Sorcerer by the same director.  It had a budget under a half-million dollars and it shows.  Things like major fight scenes, which are normally the point of such movies, are glossed over with narration.  There scenes are depicted as artwork or semi-abstract, with people acting in front of a sort of parchment background.  I'm also guessing he couldn't get the rights to the original story so Talon is replaced by a character named Oda played by Michael Paré, though Lee Horsley gets a cameo credited as "The Stranger" and several characters identify themselves as siblings with a talon-like necklace.

I wouldn't go so far as to recommend it but it's certainly different, in both good and bad ways.

Red band (NSFW) trailer here.

The opening of Tales of an Ancient Empire here.  International Trailer here.

Good to see Kevin Sorbo's keeping the hand in, look this good when you are 53, you will not. The original movie which I watched last week blew me away completely, some guy was lifting a barroom table with his erection - what?! No homage to Tolkien here! But this doesn't immediately appeal to be honest. Its a pity because I love the genre.

I've had an itch to see Sword and The Sorcerer for ages.

Quote from: John Morrow;543042Found Tales of an Ancient Empire on Netflix streaming under the title "Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire".  It's a sorta-sequel to the 1982 film The Sword and the Sorcerer by the same director.  It had a budget under a half-million dollars and it shows.  Things like major fight scenes, which are normally the point of such movies, are glossed over with narration.  There scenes are depicted as artwork or semi-abstract, with people acting in front of a sort of parchment background.  I'm also guessing he couldn't get the rights to the original story so Talon is replaced by a character named Oda played by Michael Paré, though Lee Horsley gets a cameo credited as "The Stranger" and several characters identify themselves as siblings with a talon-like necklace.

I wouldn't go so far as to recommend it but it's certainly different, in both good and bad ways.

Red band (NSFW) trailer here.

thanks for bringing this one to our attention. I just got netflix and have actually had a hard time finding movies like this on it. Do you know if they have any solid sword and sandal films, I searched (using all the variations that entails) and they just had a handful of (mostly crappy b) movies. I was expecting to see stuff like Ben Hur, The HBO series Rome, Gladiator, etc. All i found was The Centurion and Amazons of Rome (As well as a couple of classics like The Robe and Cleopatra). Same problem when I searched Fantasy or Comedy.

Netflix is currently infinitely better for TV series than it is for movies. They lost the STARZ contract earlier this year and it gutted like 800 of their titles. Really it was a better service two years ago than it is now, imo. We would have ditched it ages ago, but my boys like it for cartoons and the A-team and we don't have any sort of TV reception otherwise.

Quote from: Gib;556337Netflix is currently infinitely better for TV series than it is for movies. They lost the STARZ contract earlier this year and it gutted like 800 of their titles. Really it was a better service two years ago than it is now, imo. We would have ditched it ages ago, but my boys like it for cartoons and the A-team and we don't have any sort of TV reception otherwise.

I have had luck finding tv series on netflicks. Just watched Sherlock and they appear to have a number of shows I've been meaning to watch.

I was working full time and going to school or just going to school and raising two toddlers throughout the aughties, so I missed stuff like LOST- which I marathoned from netflix over the winter.

Actually, making it to the end of LOST in march, I haven't had the will to watch another series, or even finish Breaking Bad.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;556328thanks for bringing this one to our attention. I just got netflix and have actually had a hard time finding movies like this on it. Do you know if they have any solid sword and sandal films, I searched (using all the variations that entails) and they just had a handful of (mostly crappy b) movies. I was expecting to see stuff like Ben Hur, The HBO series Rome, Gladiator, etc. All i found was The Centurion and Amazons of Rome (As well as a couple of classics like The Robe and Cleopatra). Same problem when I searched Fantasy or Comedy.

To answer your specific request (and I haven't yet watched many of them):

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (very different from the original, but not terrible -- has an RPG vibe to it -- I recommend it)
Agora
Immortals
Clash of Empires
The 7 Adventures of Sinbad: The Persian Prince
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Xena: Warrior Princess
Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths
Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (documentary)

ADDED: Looks like the new Conan the Barbarian is out there now, too.  

Probably what you referred to as the "crappy movies":
The Minotaur
The Revolt of the Slaves
Amazons of Rome
My Son, the Hero

Things that I've found on Netflix streaming that might be of interest to people here are (some are obvious):

Movies:
The Call of Chtulhu
Dunwich Horror (love the theme music)
(Dagon has been on streaming, so keep an eye out for it)
Fire and Ice
The Wild Hunt
The Warrior's Way
Season of the Witch
Ironclad
Valhalla Rising
Black Death
Astrópía
Kick-Ass
The Dark Crystal
Labyrinth
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Master of the World
Beowulf & Grendel
Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn
Battle Beyond the Stars
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
She
Rob Roy
Conan the Destroyer
The Shadow
The Phantom
Trollhunter
A Knight's Tale
Crusade of Vengeance
Time Bandits
The Pagan Queen
The Dungeonmaster
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Metropolis Restored

Television:
Legend of the Seeker
Firefly
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Farscape
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Animates Series
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Universe
Doctor Who
Torchwood
Outcasts
The Walking Dead
Robin Hood
Battlestar Galactica (the original)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Sliders
Warehouse 13
The Mysterious Cities of Gold (animated)
Robotech + Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (anime)
Star Blazers (anime)
The Slayers (anime)
The Stand
Earth 2
Digging for the Truth (documentary)
Cosmos (documentary)
Futurama
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Lexx
National Geographic: Collapse

Quote from: Gib;556688Actually, making it to the end of LOST in march, I haven't had the will to watch another series, or even finish Breaking Bad.

I thought the final season and ending of Lost were terrible, but the characters and earlier episodes were entertaining enough that I don't feel entirely ripped off by it.  But I'm very wary of trusting the people responsible for Lost with any sort of mystery show and Once Upon a Time looks like it may be a similar sort of mess.

If you haven't already seen it, I recommend the Legend of the Seeker series, based on The Sword of Truth series of books by Terry Goodkind, produced by some of the same people responsible for Hercules, Xena, and Spartacus: Blood and Sand. (i.e., Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, music by Joseph LoDuca, New Zealand scenery).  It's not perfect but I thought the production values were pretty good, the characters were reasonably interesting, it had some clever moments, and enjoyed it quite a bit.  As an added bonus, each season is self contained and resolves the main story arc by the end.