Amazon.com

The sexy cult cable series Lexx began life in 1997 as aset of four Canadian-German TV coproductions, sci-fi farces about a trioof fugitives in a living spaceship on the run in an unknown galaxy. It'slike a twisted parody of the playful but far more serious space operaFarscape, though Lexx actually was produced first. Sad sackStanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), a bumbling engineer with bad judgment andworse luck, is the pilot of the most powerful weapon in the galaxy thanks toa fluke accident. And his motley crew includes platinum-blond bombshell ZevBellringer (Eva Habermann), whose DNA has been altered to contain that of abloodthirsty cluster lizard; former assassin Kai (Michael McManus), a humorless,dead warrior kept animated for 2,000 years with artificial blood; and a decapitated,lovesick robot head named 790.

The colorful "I Worship His Shadow," the satirical debut of the series, is anabsurd fantasy about a rebellion (led by guest star Barry Bostwick, who gamelykeeps a straight face while running around dressed in psychedelic Arabian Nightsduds) against His Shadow, an immortal emperor who renders his subjects into raw proteinfor his invincible insectlike spaceship, the Lexx. Directed at a fast and furious paceand crammed with cool CGI effects that make up in ambition and wild design what theylack in polish, it's the show's finest hour and a half, a crazy adventure with awacky sense of humor. It's obvious the show's producers lavished their care andattention on this pilot, for the balance of the miniseries never again reaches thislevel of invention and fun, though in moments it comes close. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (26)

electrifying and intelligent
if you like Shakespeare and opera, you'll love this. not only does it cater to the panting 13-35 american male category (sex and violence and fabulous special effects), but it is loaded with a dark extremely cynical look at the human race. it is a dim reflection of the brilliant director tim burton's take on humanity, only completely without any sympathy or redemptive attribution to being human whatsoever. its funny and its 'disturbing' (such an overused word in the ott decade, but very very appropriate for lexx), not because of the sex, violence or severely disfunctional 'heroes' but because how every human being on the series ends up being totally empty of any useful reason to exist. if very very clever people wanted to take Star Wars and turn every single wonderful feeling and archtype of hero in that movie into a total intellectually reversed universe of the meanings about being human, Lexx is it. and they even accomplished using the old classic Disney movie trick where whatever level you are at in being entertained, the movie is great to see, unless you are a member of one of the dogmatic and seriously single issue minded class of being human lately taking over all the talking head america.

the original four tv movies are the best, but the series is slowly losing excitement. the characters and what they represent artistically never change, except for the dead hero, who seems to be solidifying into a statue. the assassin is becoming so bloodless that at this point if he disappeared from the series no one would miss him for at least several episodes. after wonderfully clever slamming every aspect of humanity and all historic artistic endeavors to show humanity at its best, the show is turning sterile. even the artistic tension of having the characters possibly die from their adventures has been bled into losing all caring about it. it appears that where such a black view of everything in the universe leads is to complete meaningless or caring about anything, including being interested to tune in next week. i don't know if the creators have lost interest in taking the original sarcastic themes any further or if the ideas of so much utter meaningless to life has left them feeling creatively sterile.

in any case, the first 4 movies are wonderful, stimulating and fun, and leave you wondering, gosh, what next? i only wish that the story hadn't led to this dead end. it seems to me they could have kept the original hints in these movies of some type of satisfying climaxes for the characters, yet retain the sarcastic attitude. i think the creators fell so in love with the idea of trashing human idealism and hopes for the future they lost sight of the idea of how humans make life interesting when it gets dull and played out. if every human killed themselves when they ran out of ideas on what to do tomorrow, well, you know how this ends.

Must see, must have!
I first saw this movie, and the subsequent three "Tales" movies: Eating Pattern, Supernova and Giga Shadow - after watching Lexx religiously for several months on SciFi. It not only was great to see the real origins of the most adorably dysfunctional space crew to ever grace a scifi movie - you can see in this video the beginnings of an epic. The Lexx is, without a doubt, the most endearing space ship - just listen to his/its self-intro at the beginning of each movie. An added bonus is Marty Simon's excellent score to all 4 movies and all the shows. This video, the other 3 Lexx movies and the TV episode "Brigadoom" are must haves for any self-respecting sci-fi or fantasy fan!

Star Trek's Evil Twin
At first glance, I didn't think I would like this series. In fact, I saw the second one first (the one with Tim Curry) and turned it off in the middle. But then, I came back to it, and the bug had bit me, and I had to see what the rest of the series was like.
The first one is very dark, depressing, and satiracly funny. Reminiscent of Stanislaw Lem, it has holocaust themes, gore, weird political structures, etc. I cannot eat anything (not even popcorn) while watching these shows--the emphasis on death, mutilation, dehumanizing ("meat"), and defecation are overwhelming at first, but then the humor crept through. The music grew on me as well. And me, being a graphic designer, liked all the computer animation as well. But really, the acting is superb (MUCH better than Star Wars: the Clone Wars--though that's not saying much), the plot interesting, and the twists of fate ironic. This was the pilot, and one of the best in this series, quite necessary, as it sets everything up to follow.

LEXX!
This movie rocks. Pretty funny and quirky. Give it a try.

This Has to be the best I have seen!
I recently just got into Lexx, and so I decided to see where it all began. Boy was I pleased with the special effects and the storyline, as for the Lexx fans that has never seen this movie Its a must,

I cant wait to purchase the second edition to this amazing story, Finally It all falls into place! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose is a flawed attempt to adapt Umberto Eco's highly convoluted medieval bestseller for the screen, necessarily excising much of the esoterica that made the book so compelling. Still, what's left is a riveting whodunit set in a grimly and grimily realistic 14th-century Benedictine monastery populated by a parade of grotesque characters, all of whom spend their time lurking in dark places or scuttling, half-unseen, in the omnipresent gloom. A series of mysterious and gruesome deaths are somehow tied up with the unwelcome attention of the Inquisition, sent to root out suspected heretical behavior among the monastic scribes whose lives are dedicated to transcribing ancient manuscripts for their famous library, access to which is prevented by an ingenious maze-like layout.

Enter Sean Connery as investigator-monk William of Baskerville (the Sherlock Holmes connection made explicit in his name) and his naive young assistant Adso (a youthful Christian Slater). The Grand Inquisitor Bernado Gui (F. Murray Abraham) suspects devilry; but William and Adso, using Holmesian forensic techniques, uncover a much more human cause: the secrets of the library are being protected at a terrible cost. A fine international cast and the splendidly evocative location compensate for a screenplay that struggles to present Eco's multifaceted story even partially intact; Annaud's idiosyncratic direction complements the sinister, unsettling aura of the tale ideally. --Mark Walker ... Read more

Reviews (66)

Interesting Medieval Movie
Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville, a 14th cenutry Franciscan Monk who comes to an abbey high in the Italian Alps and investigates a series of murders that surround a mysterious book.

A young Christian Slater plays his companion/student. Connery is similar to a Sherlock Holmes, using very modern methods of investigation during this dark ages period.

The Monastery is home to all sorts of creepy monks including Ron Perlman playing a hunched backed simpleton. William find himself the target of heresy charges by a vengeful cardinal portrayed by the villian F. Murray Abraham.

The movie is somewhat slow but not in a bad way. It's a dark but thought provoking movie with religious overtones. Throughout is an on-going battle between William and some of the older monks. It seems the older Monks want the book supressed because it's a comedy and comedy is thought to be the work of the devil.

I've heard that the movie doesn't hold a candle to the book, but since I've never read it I have nothing to compare it to.

The film shows Connery's richest & diverse acting talents !
From the opening scenes you are mesmerized at the story and characters throughout this movie. The setting takes place in an old Italian Monastery where several Monks have died in mysterious ways and Connery, as a fellow Monk of the Order, is called in to investigate what is behind it. I was especially enlightened to this movie when on a trip to Europe I took a Rhine River Cruise and had actually visited the German Monastery where the movie was shot. The props created for the altar scenes are still there for visitors to see. As this movie unfolds the plot thickens testing your wits as to what is really going on in this remote monestary, heightened by the intervention of the Grand Inquisitor because the movie takes place during the period of the Inquisition in Europe. The acting is superb because the casting was excellent. The movie has enough historical fact and content that the viewer will learn something about medieval history as well as being entertained. If you are a Connery fan you will enjoy this movie for its content and story line. As with any GOOD actor you know Connery will not become involved in a bad script, you will not be disappointed with this Monk that he portrays. See it, rent it, buy it for your home library, you will watch it over - and - over again !!!

A Winner in Every Way
I have seen this fine film 5 or 6 times and each time I see something new and fascinating in it. Umberto Eco's novel was a complex story to adapt to a major film, and this was done with skill and intelligence by Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin & Alain Godard. The idea of such a tragic murder solved with only the tools of the time is nothing short of brilliant. I am wondering how much the BBC television series "Cadfael" with Derek Jacobi is based on this motion picture. Both are superb in their own way.

If you enjoy a film with mystery, brilliant performances, gothic photography and magnificent art direction, you will enjoy this masterpiece. Be warned, however... you will require an attention span. This is not a film kids will understand.

Excellent adaptation.
How do you take a long and very dense book, and turn it into a cohesive and quickly-paced film? The makers of THE NAME OF THE ROSE answered that riddle.

All around, this film has everything going for it. The performances are compelling and right on--no one acts like a 20th Century actor trying to act 14th century. The setting is gorgeous, although the squalor of the less fortunate is vividly conveyed. The intricate almost Escher-like quality of the labyrinth within the monastery is an amazing feat of set design and engineering.

Most of all, it's the script and direction that carry the day. Given how much information had to be siphoned and sifted from Umberto Eco's novel, the screenwriters and director Jean-Jacques Annaud masterfully created a taut and convincing murder mystery without getting bogged down in the details. The only time I thought it did was during the dragged out Inquisition scenes. However, these scenes did represent what was at risk for these characters. All in all, this is a marvelous film which murder mystery fans or fans of period pieces will want to have in their collections.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS.

Dark Rose
1986's The Name Of The Rose is a dark, deep mystery set in the unusual setting of a medieval Italian abbey and is based on Umberto Eco's bestseller. Sean Connery stars as William of Baskerville, an English monk who is sent to the secluded abbey to investigate a murder. Along with his apprentice Adson von Melk (a young Christian Slater in just his third film), they dive into the case in which more dead bodies start turning up. F. Murray Abraham (in his first film after winning the Oscar for Amadeus) plays Bernardo Gui, an icy inquisitor who gets involved in the case, but whose motives are questionable. William struggles to solve the case against the intense religious fervor of the time and the film tries to show the conflicts between religion and justice. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures the dark and dank feeling of medieval times and captures the period well. The cast gives strong performances, especially Mr. Abraham in yet another menacing role. ... Read more

Reviews (66)

Interesting Medieval Movie
Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville, a 14th cenutry Franciscan Monk who comes to an abbey high in the Italian Alps and investigates a series of murders that surround a mysterious book.

A young Christian Slater plays his companion/student. Connery is similar to a Sherlock Holmes, using very modern methods of investigation during this dark ages period.

The Monastery is home to all sorts of creepy monks including Ron Perlman playing a hunched backed simpleton. William find himself the target of heresy charges by a vengeful cardinal portrayed by the villian F. Murray Abraham.

The movie is somewhat slow but not in a bad way. It's a dark but thought provoking movie with religious overtones. Throughout is an on-going battle between William and some of the older monks. It seems the older Monks want the book supressed because it's a comedy and comedy is thought to be the work of the devil.

I've heard that the movie doesn't hold a candle to the book, but since I've never read it I have nothing to compare it to.

The film shows Connery's richest & diverse acting talents !
From the opening scenes you are mesmerized at the story and characters throughout this movie. The setting takes place in an old Italian Monastery where several Monks have died in mysterious ways and Connery, as a fellow Monk of the Order, is called in to investigate what is behind it. I was especially enlightened to this movie when on a trip to Europe I took a Rhine River Cruise and had actually visited the German Monastery where the movie was shot. The props created for the altar scenes are still there for visitors to see. As this movie unfolds the plot thickens testing your wits as to what is really going on in this remote monestary, heightened by the intervention of the Grand Inquisitor because the movie takes place during the period of the Inquisition in Europe. The acting is superb because the casting was excellent. The movie has enough historical fact and content that the viewer will learn something about medieval history as well as being entertained. If you are a Connery fan you will enjoy this movie for its content and story line. As with any GOOD actor you know Connery will not become involved in a bad script, you will not be disappointed with this Monk that he portrays. See it, rent it, buy it for your home library, you will watch it over - and - over again !!!

A Winner in Every Way
I have seen this fine film 5 or 6 times and each time I see something new and fascinating in it. Umberto Eco's novel was a complex story to adapt to a major film, and this was done with skill and intelligence by Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin & Alain Godard. The idea of such a tragic murder solved with only the tools of the time is nothing short of brilliant. I am wondering how much the BBC television series "Cadfael" with Derek Jacobi is based on this motion picture. Both are superb in their own way.

If you enjoy a film with mystery, brilliant performances, gothic photography and magnificent art direction, you will enjoy this masterpiece. Be warned, however... you will require an attention span. This is not a film kids will understand.

Excellent adaptation.
How do you take a long and very dense book, and turn it into a cohesive and quickly-paced film? The makers of THE NAME OF THE ROSE answered that riddle.

All around, this film has everything going for it. The performances are compelling and right on--no one acts like a 20th Century actor trying to act 14th century. The setting is gorgeous, although the squalor of the less fortunate is vividly conveyed. The intricate almost Escher-like quality of the labyrinth within the monastery is an amazing feat of set design and engineering.

Most of all, it's the script and direction that carry the day. Given how much information had to be siphoned and sifted from Umberto Eco's novel, the screenwriters and director Jean-Jacques Annaud masterfully created a taut and convincing murder mystery without getting bogged down in the details. The only time I thought it did was during the dragged out Inquisition scenes. However, these scenes did represent what was at risk for these characters. All in all, this is a marvelous film which murder mystery fans or fans of period pieces will want to have in their collections.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS.

Dark Rose
1986's The Name Of The Rose is a dark, deep mystery set in the unusual setting of a medieval Italian abbey and is based on Umberto Eco's bestseller. Sean Connery stars as William of Baskerville, an English monk who is sent to the secluded abbey to investigate a murder. Along with his apprentice Adson von Melk (a young Christian Slater in just his third film), they dive into the case in which more dead bodies start turning up. F. Murray Abraham (in his first film after winning the Oscar for Amadeus) plays Bernardo Gui, an icy inquisitor who gets involved in the case, but whose motives are questionable. William struggles to solve the case against the intense religious fervor of the time and the film tries to show the conflicts between religion and justice. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures the dark and dank feeling of medieval times and captures the period well. The cast gives strong performances, especially Mr. Abraham in yet another menacing role. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Having fled to the chaotic Dark Zone at the climax of "IWorship His Shadow," the motley fugitives on the planet-killing, livingspaceship Lexx head off for Brunnis, the lifeless planet that was zombiewarrior Kai's home world 2,000 years ago. Kai is dying (well, he's alreadydead, but he's running out of fuel), and they search the library for help.Unfortunately the library is more interested in expanding its collectionvia the memories of its visitors, even if it has to suck the brains out of their bodies to do it. Tim Curry costars as Poet Man, a cocky hologramtour guide miffed that he was left behind during the evacuation (all becauseof a splitting hangover), and Ellen Dubin returns as the cannibal queenGiggerota, an unwelcome Lexx stowaway who can't decide whether to feast onthe living brains in the hold of the ship or team up with them in a hijackingscheme. The TV film was originally titled Super Nova for reasons thatbecome obvious as the planet's dying sun moves toward its final burst ofglory. It's an impressive effect, one of the highlights of a show thatoften gets stuck in talky, static scenes. This episode is kind of a letdowncompared to the action-packed first episode, but it's not without its charms(like Zev's gratuitous R-rated shower scene--hubba hubba!). The next in theseries is "Eating Pattern." --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (10)

A MUST have bot not the BEST of the four films
This episode of Lexx takes us to the abandoned former home world of the Bruhnanji. There is no one on the planet except the holographic remains of a former disgruntled inhabitant, masterfully played by veteran actor Tim Curry.

While I found this episode enjoyable and mostly essential to any Lexx collection, because it shows you the prophecies of the time prophet, and you get to see Kai sliced into thin wafers, I just dont think it was as good as "I worship his Shadow" and GigaShadow.

I give it four stars for being great. I can't give it five stars, because it's just not quite as exciitng as the other films in the series.

slow entry in the series
This was the second of the Lexx movies - the sequel to "I Worship His Shadow". Having escaped into the "Dark Zone" an with the Lexx now under the total control of Stanley Tweedle, the crew searches for Brunis, the lost homeworld of the Bruneen-Gee. Kai, as described in "I Worship" was last of the Bruneen-Gee and had been killed by His Shadow centuries earlier, but had been kept reanimated to serve His Shadow as an assassin. Sent to the Lexx to kill Tweedle and the lovely Zev, Kai reclaims his memory and joins Tweedle and Zev in escaping His Shadow. Slowly dying again for lack of "proto-blood", Kai spends much of his time in a stasis tube. When that's damaged, Zev, who loves Kai, convinces Tweedle to take the Lexx to Brunis in the vain hope that they may find proto-blood there. Instead, they find the preserved but lifeless planet a death trap. The shared memories of its inhabitants were long ago removed and stored on computer. One of these - The Poet (Tim Curry) has managed to become dominant. Accidentally choosing to follow The Poet's fate, Zev and Kai find themselves trapped in a machine that prepares to dissect them and remove their memories. Tweedle, characteristically, gets trapped in the sort of situation you'd expect him to (The Poet had long ago left his seed in the care of the planet's computer, programming it to impregnate the first life form it could identify as female, or at least not male). Also along is Giggerotta (Ellen Dubin), an escaped criminal like Zev, but not a criminal like Zev actually (Giggerotta is actually a vile cannibal), and one with plans of her own.

This was a disappointing follow-up to "Worship" - much of the action has Kai and Zev strapped to a slab while a buzzsaw keeps getting close and Tim Curry gloats on. It lacks the frantic action of "Worship" and not even the always enjoyable Tim Curry can give this outer the speed it needs. I actually first saw this episode after I had seen both "Worship" and "Giga Shadow" the film that ended the pre-series run, and realized that this episode was entirely superfluous.

worst of the initial 4 "movies"
I guess it's a matter of personal taste but I cared less for this full length LEXX(93 min) than any of the other 3. I WORSHIP HIS SHADOW and GIGA SHADOW could be viewed back to back for story continuity. EATING PATTERN comes across like an individual adventure, complete in itself and better for it. TALES...with Tim Curry seems to drag alot; the pacing is slow and the last third goes on forever with the coming supernova. Thankfully no other LEXX venture repeats this tedious formula. This particular video of the initial 4 is forgetable and unnecessary, unless you're a fan(me). Also, you'd think with the gang going back to the planet Brunnis there would be at least ONE "YO-WAY-OH" recital...but it's curiously missing. I love that space shanty, it was the one particular thing that drew me into the series in the first place.

Poetman screws the day
This was the first I saw of the series, and the worst--though seeing it out of order, not having seen the first one, contributed a lot to my total incomprehension of the events and characters. Seeing it again, after seeing I WORSHIP HIS SHADOW helped, but still. The computer animation was nice, but the weirdness prevailed. Tim Curry wasn't star of ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW for nothing! The shower scene with Zev was nice, though.

Great tape!
Lexx - Tales From a Parallel Universe
VHS was great! It shipped in a reasonal amount of time, and was worth the wait. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Not bad...
Well I saw this movie in the previews section of $LA$HER$ and thought i would check it out...

I'm gonna keep it short and say that this movie was not that bad. It had a cool and original killer, a few good plot twists, and good characters. the only thing that made it not that enjoyable was the german. Now I am all for films in diffrent langauges, I don't mind ready subtitles. But the subs here [are bad]. I put them on cause I heard the dubbing was bad, but the subs are worse. First off they are always late. Like 10 seconds after someone says something the sub comes on. And by then someone else is prolly allready talking so it gets very confusing. So about half way through the movie I gave up and switched it to dubbs, wich wasn't that bad acctualy. Although the voice acting isn't that good the are better than the subs.

So besides the [bad] subs and dubbs this movie is good. A few scary parts, good acting, and cool killer. I recomend.

TERRIBLE
I spent most of the time laughing at the sheer ridiculousness and predictability of this movie (who on Earth would say that this movie had unexpected plot twists?). Yeah, the dubbing was awful, but it only added on to what was already a bad, bad movie. Even my roommate, who normally hates watching scary movies because she thinks they're too scary, laughed all the way through this one. And, uh, what kind of police officer would discuss a rape with people OTHER than the immediate family? <-- Just one of the many truly stupid scenes in the movie. C'mon, skip this one--unless you're looking for something for "bad movie night" (as in my case; I thought it looked stupid from the packaging--"grizzly" instead of "grisly"? please...), and then this one takes the cake.

The most atmospheric slasher since "Halloween"
A German TV movie trying to compete with Hollywood genre movies? Sounds audacious, doesn't it? But SURPRISE: it is the most atmospheric slasher since "Halloween." An advice to everyone who has problems with the English dubbing: the DVD contains the original German language version with English subtitles and leaves a completely different impression of the quality of the performances and the actual impact of the film's subtext violence. Highly recommended.

*It was pretty decent!*
Okay, so I'm a movie buff. I'm trying to get into the production side of film making and I have to say this film would have probably been like a stepping stone for me or a gateway into the major horror films. It wasn't bad at all. Except for a few annoying things:

I agreed with some of the others, the dubbing did get on my nerves at first but then I just stopped paying attention to the actors' lips. The acting could have used a bit more work on some of the characters but they were better than most American actors today, so I didn't mind that too much. And yeah the opening scene could have been written a lot better and with more originality (it did seem like the opening for SCREAM.)

But all in all the movie had a good twist at the end which surprised me and I must say the soundtrack was pretty good!

I think the Germans are getting the idea of what makes a good scary movie. . . surprises and a good track!!

A terrifying german TV - Thriller !
I think the people shouldn't give a bad mark for this movie, because it's just a german TV-Horrormovie, but goog for that.
A few actors of this chilling movie are german soap-stars. Of course this movie followed the concept of "Scream" and "Urban Legend" and it has a good and scary atmosphere. This movie for example isn't the only german scary movie (OK, one year later a bad sequel was made, it was called "Boarding school for girls - no one can hear you scream"). There are a few movie, which are normaly untypical for a country like Germany. In 2000 the most favourite german scary movie was "Anatomy", in the same year "Flashback - Murderous Holidays" was made, the most chilling product of the german movie-industry. In 2001 "Swimming Pool-The death celebrates with you" was a product of a german director with a cast of americans,germans and actors from England. But it was a big flop in all cinemas. I'm from Germany, I can garanty for it. But "School's out" is very good for a TV- movie. ... Read more