Minotaur (2006)

Long ago in the Iron Age, a shadow loomed over a lonely village. For generations, the village youths are stolen from their families and delivered as sacrifice to a mythical beast - the Minotaur that dwells beneath a great palace. Theo, haunted by the loss of his love in an earlier sacrifice is convinced that the beast isn't real, and that his girl still lives as a slave within the palace. Minotaur was one heck of an awful low budget film, the creature looked better than usual but still not good enough, the perfomances were horrible especially Tom Hardy's and the film was more on the romantic side than the horror one that it needed. Definitely one hell of a horrible horror sci-fi movie. (0/10)

If you ever find yourself in conversation with Tom Hardy at some cocktail party (one can dream), Minotaur is the film you bring up to both flabbergast and embarrass him, if only for your own amusement. It's one of those low budget sword & sorcery schlock-fests that the SyFy channel used to broadcast at two in the morning on sleepy Saturday nights, to serve as background noise for whatever hedonistic shenanigans are going on in the living room. It's Tom's first ever starring role, and therefore should never be forgotten, like those old camcorder tapes of kids learning to ride sans training wheels for the first time. The story borrows from the legend, adding its own lurid, t&a soaked flair that only SyFy can get just right. Tom plays the son of a Viking chieftain (a brief Rutger Hauer), who goes looking for his true love, one among a few of the village's youngsters who get kidnapped every year by a freaky pseudo African tribe of weirdos who sacrifice youths to the mythical Minotaur, residing in rocky catacombs beneath their city's surface. Led by supreme weirdo Deucalion (Candyman's Tony Todd, hamming up every scene), who fervently wants to impregnate his own hot sister (chill, dude), and oversees this theatrical occult ritual with obscene relish. This is one of those creature features where you barely see the beast for the first two thirds of the film, save for a quick snaggle of fur or fang rushing by in the shadows, and suspiciously looking like a bearskin rug cello taped to antlers and a hobby horse. Hardy does get an eventual confrontation with the Minotaur late in the game and deep in the maze, providing a few schlocky moments that are worth the ride, but it's silly stuff most of the time, scraping the bottom of a barrel that does lower than the maze of the bull. Totally tagging Tom in thee blog post though in hopes that he sees this and it brightens his day just a bit.

While not the greatest creature feature i've come across it's still very entertaining. If your tastes lies high quality production, michael bay, type movies you won't enjoy this. If you enjoy great story telling fantastic mind blowing content, you won't enjoy this. If your looking for a fun b-movie with a wicked looking creature, cheesy dialog and splashes of blood then i suggest you give this a chance. Its better than almost anything SyFy is making these days. Funny, considering i saw this when SyFy was still SciFi. For lovers of B-Movies and Monsters!

The movie attempts to tell "a" true story of what inspired the ancient myth of Theseus and the minotaur. This version isn't bad at all. Strengths go to story, acting and directing. Obviously, this movie is made with an abysmal budget, but Tom Hardy is able to keep it floating above average, along with Rutger Hauer and some other decent actors. The story is logical enough, and the conclusion smarter than expected. The special effects are poor. They take you constantly out of the movie, and the acting is a bit inconsistent. While the prisoners running for survival in the labyrinth are quite good, Tony Todd hams it up overacting as a high priest, still entertaining though.I expected nothing when starting the movie, and got nothing meaningful out of it, except for a little thrill by watching a CGI monster chase hapless victims, who fortunately fight back to give us a good show. I have seen much worse movies with fancier and more expensive special effects.