The BeastMaster

PG

1982

1 hr. 54 min.

Adventure

Fantasy

List

50%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

54%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Prehistoric Dar (Marc Singer) uses ESP with animals to save a slave girl (Tanya Roberts) from a sorcerer (Rip Torn).

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Mark B

I love this movie it is not great but it is enjoyable

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/28/24

Full Review

Harry M

Classic 80's B grade action. Love it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/21/24

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Odevis L

Excellent sword and sorcery movie from the era.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/31/24

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Micky B

Saw this film when it came out, First film i saw in a cinema (and it actually came out before, but the same year as Conan the Barbarian. Which is grating when people refer to it as a Conan copy) bet you didn't know that! Beastmaster (Daar) a sword wielding barbarian with a huge black tiger as a companion came out a year before the original He-Man cartoons, and it was obvious of the inspiration. Closest we've got to a live action He-Man and Battlecat. Sure it has corny acting here n there, but it has a fantastic sweeping score, the fx are real with no cgi, actual gore and horror elements, and is actually a very gritty movie. Seeing a man digested between the wings of a weird humanoid bat creature and spat out as green slime and bones was pretty impressive back then. A ring with an eye ball in it. Rip Torn as a truly evil cult leader with genuinly creepy witches and fanatics, So much cool things in this film, but overshadowed by the more well known Conan the Barbarian. But out of all the sword and scorcery films, id Conan is in first place, Beastmaster is easily second place.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/04/23

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Weston T

My personal favorite movie of all time, and the best sword-and-sorcery movie ever.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/17/23

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Taylor L

There are several different shots of a pair of ferrets being chased around a castle by a man in a bondage mask and spiked pants. Their names are Kodo and Podo, and they are an absolute delight. The Beastmaster was one of the many Conan-esque epics of the '80s, which together featured fantasy settings and surprisingly large sets, but weren't setting the world on fire when it came writing or character growth. But there weren't about any of that, they were about seeing some oiled-up jacked dude swing a sword around with minimal clothing, and this time that honor (?) went to Marc Singer. He's not the worst actor, he just doesn't have the charisma for an action-adventure role like this, but at least he's not lonely - John Amos (of Coming to America and Die Hard 2 fame) joins him in weirdly revealing and poorly-designed all-weather studded leather to rescue the princess, defeat the evil army, and slay the evil wizard, Rip Torn (apparently Klaus Kinsi was supposed to get the role, that would've been amazing). Overall the film isn't bad; the sets are large, there's a lot of coordination in the horse riding shots, and there's even some big practical effects (plus the whole protagonist-controlling-animals thing is interesting). There's some good humor - watching a couple of ferrets being slowly shimmined down a rope to heist some prison keys is unashamedly adorable. Overall, it's not bad enough to be enjoyed sarcastically, but it is overlong and most of the pieces are pretty undistinguished from the rest of the sword and sandal genre. The final fight is essentially a two-parter that sees the main villain defeated before nameless bad guy turns up to draw an extra 15 minutes out of the runtime, then there's an oddly prolonged epilogue. If you have to have something running in the background while you refinish a secondhand bedside table or something, you could do worse. One of the ferrets literally saves the day by biting the back of Rip Torn's neck, he's the real MVP. (2/5)

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

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Don Coscarelli

Director

Marc Singer

Dar

Tanya Roberts

Kiri

Rip Torn

Maax

John Amos

Seth

Joshua Milrad

Tal

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

...this film has ferrets, up to here. Action cinema is so often coy about the portrayal of ferrets on the big screen, but The Beastmaster breaks taboos, never panning coyly away when ferrets are introduced, instead focusing in granular detail...

Rated: 3/5

Jan 30, 2024

Full Review

James Evans

Starburst

The Beastmaster is a film shot through with love for the genre.

Rated: 8/10

Aug 31, 2020

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

In its attempt to outdo every other fantasy epic to date, culling pieces from everything in the last decade, it manages only to be one of the more forgettable of the genre.

Rated: 6/10

Aug 31, 2020

Full Review

Rob Vaux

Mania.com

A kid-friendly version of Arnold Schwarzenegger's grown-up guilty pleasure... which really sort of misses the point.

Rated: C

May 14, 2013

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Jennie Kermode

Eye for Film

Rated: 1.5/5

Aug 19, 2011

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Steve Crum

Video-Reviewmaster.com

So-so adventure fantasy that spawned several sequels.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 16, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

Prehistoric Dar (Marc Singer) uses ESP with animals to save a slave girl (Tanya Roberts) from a sorcerer (Rip Torn).

Director: Don Coscarelli
Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli, Paul Pepperman
Production Co: Leisure Investment Company
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 17, 2017
Sound Mix: Surround

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