Masters of the Universe (1987) - Retrospective / Review 

Oliver I can't thank you enough for this review. Because of you I found the movie that i watched in Cuba as a kid. And the soundtrack... WOW just WOW. do you know where i can download the score? The CD is wayyy too expensive.

Oliver, you touched on "Over the top". Any chance of a review? It's a guilty pleasure of mine.(except for the kid, he was really annoying).

I love this film =) I absolutely agree with your assessment of the whole thing. =)

Oliver Harper i have it on vhs

David S Goyer is writing and directing the film which it could be filming in April.

Yes. They must be resurrected and their dead and rotten corpse be dragged before the big screen. Similar to what Disney did with Star Wars. It worked great! Everyone loves Star Wars now. I mean the survivors of course. I am not dead, and that’s a good thing...

Judah Earl Cannon was a company that did things on the cheap which is why most of the movies bombed

I heard in a documentary they once had 84 films in production at once. That is absolutely asking to go bankrupt. But still...LOVED this movie.

@@elvisleeboy I think he was being sarcastic.

@@rexremedy1733 why do I think of the movie Cyborg, and we are going threw a Epidemic. I will take you there(Canon Films)to the big screen, I will be a god.

The film has a lot of problems. I consider Dolph to be among the least of them. 😊

Well said.

I also never understood why people say Dolph has an "accent" to begin with. He really doesn't. The problem with Dolph in this film isn't his accent, it's his delivery of the dialogue. It's rather poor for most of the film. I don't think he was mis-cast but I do feel his delivery was poor. It's the same deal with the "fast and furious" movies where anyone who appears in those films deliver some of the worst dialogue in cinema history yet when they do other projects, they don't deliver their lines like that, some of them at least.

Agreed 100%. I never had a problem with Dolph at all. I thought he did well as a kid, and all these years later I still feel that way when I watch it. 95% of playing He-Man is going to be about the look. And coming off the huge success of Rocky 4, Dolph was almost the only choice for the role IMO. Who else could you find that looked like He-Man with some name recognition? You are not going to get someone with real/proven acting chops to play He-Man probably not even today. Even for Thor they got Hemsworth who was pretty unknown at the time. He had only a few acting credits.. Another role that was really about the look more than the acting, but that role exploded his career.. It is a shame for Dolph because had this movie been a big hit like Rocky 4 it would have really skyrocketed his career. But I remember the movie and him fondly. BTW if you have not seen him in Creed 2 watch it. He was great..

@@dbreiden83080 I agree. Dolph looked the part and he has proven that he can deliver excellent dialogue. The problem with this film is the dialogue. It's poorly written therefore, it's poorly delivered. This was still early in Dolph's career but for the time, there weren't many actors who could physically look the part of He-Man.

As a kid I never even noticed or knew he had an accent. He sounded normal to me.

It seems he had to retry the lines several times to get them right. I'd also be fine with an accent, although it would not make sense for only Heman to have that "Eternian" accent. The other characters would have to speak the same way for it to make sense. And actually, they shouldn't even be speaking English, as long as we're on the topic of language. Now that would have made for a more interesting world-crossing adventure!

Martin Sexton he's turning in his grave at the thought of that horrible street fighter film... it was embarrassingly dogshit

His costume is utter shit though.

Martin Sexton one of cinema’s great villains. And Conti’s score still kicks arse... even if it was a facsimile of Williams’ Star Wars and Superman

Raul Will always be gomez Adams to me

OF COURSE!!!

Yeah! I don't think Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd got the memo that He-Man wasn't popular anymore.

I do not think the movie came to late. More like too early. Now is the time. Like transformers for vastly more nostalgia income

SengirShowsU I've never understood why we haven't had more movies based on 80s cartoons, you'd think after transformers has made so much money studios would of tried more. Mask, bionic 6, and thundercats I'd love to see.

maybe after G.I. Joe movies were not the big success, film companies became a bit more careful

Cinema Voice He-Man toys made $400 million in 1986, all in.

Dean Strickson Same her.

Actually the mysteries of girls and combining the two halves of the power sword had a lot in common.

Dean Strickson So, their big mistake was failing to organize the production of the film around your specific age? Because there were no longer any six year olds around in 1987.

In Finland we had this right at a continum. Because the toys werent that available and only people with cable or sky saw the show. So this movie hit just at the right spot and we saw it while still playing with the toys at age seven.

elvisleeboy think harder

paul mcgettigan ..well said*

Frank Lagella was so compelling as Skeletor I could listen to him for the whole movie.

paul mcgettigan unbelievable I freakin love this film!

It deserves it honestly.

Deserve 1%

"HE-MAN and the Masters of Courteney Cox's Hotness."

So many great moments, hard to pick one.

Nobody does it better BABY! ; )

Old movies are better

HitchensImmortal Right on. Same here.

HitchensImmortal Agreed on all points.

Amen.

Your right about that! Frank Langella's villain monologue near the end of the movie is one of the absolute best ever.

There is a FB page dedicated to Frank Langella's performance as Skeletor.

Brilliant is an understatement.

Stefan Wejda no, but Darth Sidious.

there hasn't been any real villains after Vader and Skeletor

More like a cross between Vader and Palpatine

His costume is utter shit though.

Zero to feel guilty about with this movie. It's magnificent!

Last Starfighter was awesome.

Yeah its fantastic. I want it but only if it makes those sweet synth sounds!

@@OliverHarper this is a masterful film this is canon second-best next to it lifeforce and Cannon shouldn't have cut budgets to Superman 4 for their films and even used it to use for Masters of the Universe even it's very faithful to the He-man Source material there's another way they could have used money to help out with the production of Masters of the Universe instead of cutting the budget for Superman 4 and I love this film !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!❤❤❤🥰🤩🤩🤩🤩🥰🤩!!!

@@OliverHarper "The Star Wars of the 80s" Star Wars came OUT IN THE 80S!!!! 🤣😆😆🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 EMPIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gosH😄😄😄😄😄😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

Hairy Cornflake Totally agree. Many similarities and both were used as inspiration and sizzle reel clip footage for Thor Ragnorock (2017)

I think the biggest rip off of Masters 87 is Thor (2010)

This was a bas ass movie only people who dont like this movie played with barbies

I definitely watched it because of Courteney

@@kjdempsey what about meg foster

@@zacharyjochumsen9677 mostly Courteney

Definitely. He was a true visionary. With an iconic style. I can see the Jack Kirby influence in this movie and it went full circle in a way, as Masters Of The Universe & the often compared Flash Gordon with it's parallels, were both a massive influence on Thor Ragnorok (2017). Jack Kirby style and original artwork is all over that film, as it should be and is a superb fitting tribute to JK.

I believe it was the other way around. Superman 4 had the budget cut in half so Cannon could use the money for Heman and pre-production of Spiderman.

Superman IV is the one that had its budget cut in half thanks to the money being funneled into Masters of the Universe.

Yeah the special effects were better on this film than on Superman 4. Funnily enough both featuring a tall, tanned, muscle bound, blonde mulleted man with super powers in 1987 with Nuclear Man. A strong look on many levels

haha!

+Oliver Harper I loved this as a kid. Even now I still reckon the casting and design was very apt. Perhaps if it was set entirely on Eternia it could've been a classic. Who knows? It might've been TOO similar to StarWars - let's face it, it's very much in that vein! Great video as always, Oliver. Cheers :-)

They have since made some official MOTU movie figures.

Cheers Geoffrey!

@@OliverHarper Oliver what's your favorite Superman 4 by Alexander courage or He Man by Bill Conti I thought He-Man was by Alexander courage the whole time yeah yeah yeah yeah

@@OliverHarper He-Man , Superman TO A POINT, and lifeForce are Cannon`s best films as Cannon`s big-budget films are better than their small-budget films

Klonoa7H Frank Langella really hams it up, he's the best part of this movie.

This movie wasn't funny back when it released. Now majority of the fantasy films of the time are just laughable lol

Love the retro style rei

Rated R in Sweden? Damn your censors were very strict!

Also restricted at the cinema were Gremlins 1, Ghostbusters 1 and The Empire Strikes Back, even with a parent no one under 15 was admitted. By the early 90's however, things got more lax and Gremlins 2 and Ghostbusters 2 were both given the age rating 11, even though the content was similar (or even more intense).

wow that's crazy!

When Jurassic Park came out in Norway some 10 yr olds got scared and some parents felt 10 rating was too low.......cant win em all ;)

no budget for that plus orko sucks

They could have easily just called Gwildor Orko and that would be that.

Orco could have been done with the Slimer/ghost optical effects from Ghostbusters

Soren Sorensen Im still waiting for the day they make another He Man movie set completely in Eternia!

What if they instead had brought Courtney Cox, her boyfriend and the guy from Back to the Future over to Eternia. Then He-Man & friends would have had to find them in the Eternian Wilderness before Skeletor's forces and it could all be filmed outdoors or in studio sets. Having it all set on Earth was what disappointed me the most.

they are (sony) apparently...but theyre making adam and keldor/skeletor brothers so its gonna be reminescent of thor garbage XD

The remake has been in development hell for years and has been passed around so many directors. It'll be a garbage fire of massive proportions, and papped off to a first time director who will undoubtedly not give a shit about the source material and want to put their own "stamp" on it. Stick with the 1987 film. No matter what anyone says, it's a good film.

Actually , he did use a laser gun in one of the comics , who says he cant use other weapons than his sword ?

Oliver explained why there was no Battle Cat, they couldn't get it in, and get it believeable so they dropped it.

Actually He-Man never used his shield in the toon (cept prince Adam used one when he was practiscing with Duncan aka MAA)

Thank you very much!

Marvellous thank you!

Great movie