Beastmaster III - The Eye Of Braxus (1996)

The beastmaster Dar (V's Marc Singer) is reunited with his young half- brother Tal (Starship Trooper's Casper Van Dien, sporting a most unconvincing wig) now ruler of the small barbarian kingdom of Aruk, and the warrior Seth (horror legend Tony Todd), both characters from the original movie, but now recast.

Tal was bequeathed a mysterious amulet by their late father, and this is - of course - the MacGuffin (the titular Eye of Braxus) sought by the warlord-wizard Agon (the ever-excellent David Warner).

After Dar leaves Tal's encampment, it is set upon by Agon's Crimson Warriors (so-called because of their red-coloured sword blades) who kidnap the king and take him back to their master.

You can't go wrong with David Warner

Agon is pissed though because Tal no longer has all of the Eye of Braxus, which is required to open a doorway beyond which lies the imprisoned Lord of The Pit, the evil old god Braxus, and "ultimate power" to any who release him.

Canny Tal had given half of the medallion to his wandering, nomadic brother for safe-keeping.

Driven to rescue his brother, Dar teams up with Seth, who had been acting as Tal's advisor, and roguish-swordswoman Shada (Sandra Hess, who played Andrea Von Strucker in The Hoff's Marvel movie, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, and who has surprisingly coiffured hair for someone in her line of work).

Shada's loyalties tend to flip-flop, as she - rather successfully - plays both sides, and eventually picks the winning one.

As a love-interest for Dar, Shada was never going to measure up to Kiri (the late, lamented Tanya Roberts of Charlie's Angels fame) from the original Beastmaster, but she grew on me as her character developed.

Near-naked and constantly oiled-up Dar is never without his small coterie of telepathically-linked animal companions, a pair of ferrets (representing his cunning), a hawk (as his eyes), and a lion (for strength).

Oddly the lion has the same name - Ruh - as Dar's panther from the first film, but I suspect this is a similar naming convention to The Witcher's Geralt of Rivia always calling his horse Roach.

By the way, these aren't CGI creatures, but flesh-and-blood animals on the set, which does make a scene of the lion's capture slightly uncomfortable viewing, but I like to think the noble beast's handlers took good care of it.

After a run-in with some savage hill people, Seth, Dar, and Shada get to Agon's city, and decide to join a circus camped outside the walls, as a cover to smuggle themselves in.

Only the circus (which seems to have just two performers and a stable boy on staff) turns out to be run by an ex-lover of Seth's, Morgana (soap opera stalwart Lesley-Anne Down), who possesses a magical gem in her headband that can turn living things into animals.

Morgana, Dar, and Shada

This all gets a bit awkward, and leads to an another apparent betrayal of Dar, but Morgana actually has a plan and Dar being imprisoned in Agon's fortress is part of it.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus, like the previous films in the franchise it neither takes itself too seriously nor sends-up its subject matter.

The low, made-for-TV, budget, and the steady hand of established television director Gabrielle Beaumont (who lists multiple episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Hill Street Blues, and L.A. Law, to name-check just a few, on her CV)  lends an air of Xena: Warrior Princess and Legendary Journeys of Hercules to proceedings that prepares us mentally for the "man-in-a-rubber-suit" final Big Bad.

While David Wise's script has its plot wobbles on occasion and isn't going to win an Oscar, there's great evidence of world-building here. More places and people get actual names in Beastmaster III than most B-movie sword-and-sorcery flicks.

The cast may be small - and this makes for some comically empty backdrops to some scenes - but most of the named characters we meet are interesting and quirky.

So much of the story also has a very Conan feel to it, but it's just the budgetary limitations once again that prevent it from going full wide-screen barbarian, instead recasting Dar's band of brothers as a mismatched party of Dungeons & Dragons adventurers instead.

It's all a question of managing your expectations, if you go in expecting another chapter of Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings, you're going to be disappointed, but if you're looking for something more akin to Hercules or Xena then you can have a great time with this hour-and-a-half movie.

Yes, of course, it could have been so much better, but there's actually so much to enjoy that did make it onto the screen that I must confess I was pleasantly entertained by The Eye of Braxus.

The Beastmaster (1982)

Growing up in pre-Internet days, Marc Singer was always "that guy from (the original) V" while the stunning Tanya Roberts was one of the last, true Charlie's Angels (and, almost certainly, my first red-haired crush).

Little did I realise at the time that they both had a whole 'nother life in the fantastic swords and sorcery flick The Beastmaster.

Singer is the barbarian Dar, born with the supernatural ability to communicate with animals and see through their eyes (if he concentrates hard enough), whose home village is razed by the Jun horde - a merciless army of killers working for Maax (Rip Torn), the high priest who has seized control of the land.

On the path to revenge, Dar - and his animal companions (a couple of ferrets, an eagle and a black-painted tiger seemingly masquerading as a panther) - meets up with 'slave girl' Kiri (Roberts), warrior Seth (John Amos) and a young boy called Tal (Josh Milrad), all seeking to free the land from Maax's cruel grip and restore Tal's father Zed (Rod Loomis) to the throne.

Along the way there's all sorts of hijinks with a variety of humanoid monsters (including a trio of hag-like witches working for Maax; leathery-winged beasties that envelop their victims in their wings and suck their skin, innards and muscles off; and the insane, rampaging death guards), plenty of fighting, some decent (for the '80s special effects) and a surprisingly complex plot (or maybe I was just distracted by Tanya Roberts).

The Beastmaster even manages to throw in a couple of false endings, so that just when you think Maax has been beaten and all is right in the world, the Jun horde come riding back over the horizon and our heroes have more troubles on their hands.

And Dar is an interesting barbarian - although clearly inspired by Conan (as all barbarian movies were in the '80s), he isn't superhumanly strong, has a soft side (he cries when Zed calls him a coward and kicks him out of their gang - and at that stage he doesn't even know Zed is his true father) and clearly loves his animals (he won't leave the temple dungeons until he has found his ferrets).

Of course, it still has its odd moments - such as the scene where Dar and Seth rescue Kiri and some other girls from the priests who are taking them to be sacrificed. Our heroes only actually liberate Kiri and nothing is ever said or done about the other girls who were, presumably, eventually taken off to be sacrificed anyway!

And then, of course, there's the scene near the start where one of the hag-witches walks into the king's bedchamber at night with a cow - I'm calling "magic spell" on that one, though, otherwise it's too bizarre for words (especially given the wonderfully revolting sorcery that follows).

However, so well made and well paced - under the direction of co-writer Don Coscarelli (who also directed the four highly-regarded Phantasm movies and Bubba Ho-Tep) - that even at just under two hours duration, The Beastmaster never outstays its welcome.