SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

berberian00-276-69085 How about that mess with H. Rider Haggard's heritage! Ayesha or She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed has been filmed several times and none of them comes true to spirit of the original. "She" (1925) is silent movie with extensive budget but parts of script are missing. "She" (1935) goes as far as the North Pole where Leo/Kallikrates stumble on lost city Kor. "She" (1965) is most popular where Horace and Leo travel to lost city of Kuma. Ayesha dies in the Eternal Fire, while Kallikrates becomes immortal and waits for her reincarnation. There comes "Vengeance of She" (1968) as sequel, where Carol - a modern European girls - is taken over by the spirit of mysterious Ayesha. Finally, "She" (2001) is the latest remake which I couldn't obtain and YouTube has ban on it.Let's get to the meat now. It appears that Ayesha story is four novels serial written by H. Rider Haggard at different time intervals (1886, 1905, 1921 and 1923). You can check in Wikipedia for synopsis but it is still complicated as Maya calendar. So, stay calm until someone gives you digest or otherwise a one page summary plot. Then if you have patience and compliance, you can stop worry or else you start arguing because its in your character. I know people that hold strong executive positions and still haven't read a book in their life. They are just proxy for authority.H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925) is the most important English writer of adventure fiction. Unfortunately, his novels are not reissued regularly and maybe because there is lack of demand. For instance, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is English Victorian era author who wrote numerous highly acclaimed novels. I would rather read two novels from H. Rider Haggard than one from Charles Dickens. It's not that he is dull, but he is highly unreadable. In our country Haggard has been translated widely in the past 80-90 years. New titles are coming in translation regularly, but I repeat, original Haggard novels are difficult to obtain."She: A History of Adventure" and "Ayesha: The Return of She" have appeared recently in double edition. Preface for two books is combined, where the Editor tells the audience how he received a parcel with manuscript. In the parcel, there is attached letter from executives of Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey. The manuscript gives a first-person narrative of Ayesha adventures for 2000 years.Ayesha was borrowed from Arabic, being traditionally one of Mohammed's wives names. What happened in the plot ... ehh, you can start in 500 B.C. when the frame story begin. A threesome story evolves when the Persian king invades Egypt and three people flee away in hidden kingdom of Kor, in Africa. Those are Ayesha (celibate priestess), Kallikrates the Greek (mercenary employed by the Pharaoh), and Egyptian princess (loves Kallikrates and seeks revenge on Ayesha). The story builds on ...

Spondonman Compared to She from two years previously this isn't as good, therefore most people would probably find it tedious and trashy. But to my surprise I quite enjoyed it for what it is: a cheap and cheerful attempt to cash-in on a successful product by Hammer and entertaining to a point. What H. Rider Haggard might have thought of it is another matter though.Mysterious young blonde female pin up is wandering around alone in the South of France to a lilting theme song (redolent of Public Eye), not knowing who she is, where she's been or going - redolent of Department S. She gets taken up and along with a party that are heading for North Africa, that is, in her direction. Is she the reincarnation of Ayesha or not? Redolent of The Avengers. Berova was apparently a Playboy model with her career in front of her, but she wasn't a great actress so I wonder why Hammer chose her for the part after Ursula Andress had refused. At the not-so-lost city of Kuma I could hardly recognise John Richardson reprising his original role of immortal Kallikrates - he must have had a tough two years since She, and even his voice was dubbed ... redolent of The Flashing Blade. Maybe that's the big reason I enjoyed it, the walk down Mammary Lane. And Edward Judd was always reliable and amusing as the voice of reason to all the unreason around him. There's a very dramatic climax, but be prepared to laugh uproariously at a scene unintentionally redolent of Andy Pandy.It's a pleasant enough time-filler - if you don't expect too much from it you might get something from it.

BA_Harrison Three years after their reasonably entertaining version of H. Rider Haggard's classic adventure 'She', Hammer Studios produced a sequel, 'The Vengeance of She'. Lacking the star power of the original (Ursula Andress, Peter Cushing and Bernard Cribbens are noticeable by their absence), the film is a dreary retread of events from the earlier movie, albeit with the roles reversed: this time around, it is the immortal Killikrates (John Richardson) who is pining for his long-dead love Ayeesha.Convincing Killikrates that his soul-mate has finally been reborn in the form of a stunning European blonde named Carol (Olinka Berova), power-hungry occultist Men-Hari (Derek Godfrey) strikes a deal with the lovelorn leader: if he can successfully lure Carol to the lost African city of Kuma (using his powerful black magic), then he must be granted permission to pass through the sacred blue flame that would bring him immortality (and give him a pop at taking over the world!).Compelled to travel to Africa by the voices in her head, the confused Carol is joined on her journey by Philip (Edward Judd), a concerned psychiatrist who is determined to ensure the beautiful young woman's safety.On arriving at Kuma, and discovering the real reasons behind Carol's mysterious calling, Philip sets out to stop the poor girl from being brainwashed into believing she is Ayeesha, and prevent Men-hari from achieving his nefarious goal.'The Vengeance of She' starts promisingly enough, with the sex-kittenish, mini-skirted Berova (think along the lines of Bardot, and you won't be far wrong) making quite an impression as she walks through the French countryside (accompanied by a haunting theme song), but it soon descends into a messy mish-mash of boring mystical mumbo-jumbo, lacklustre adventure, and unconvincing melodrama.Director Cliff Owen wisely makes the most of Berova's awesome physical attributes to try and distract his audience, having her slip into clingy white robes that give viewers a tantalising glimpse of her marvellous milky puddings (please note: my workmate Phil wanted me to use that phrase in one of my comments), but even with endless gratuitous lingering shots of her semi-clad form, the film still winds up as something of a snooze-fest.

MARIO GAUCI I was let down by Hammer Films' version of SHE (1965), so I wasn't particularly looking forward to its even less regarded sequel (concocted by Peter O'Donnell, who had earlier scripted the Joseph Losey camp classic MODESTY BLAISE [1966]!). Still, given that the film begins in a modern-day setting, I have to say that I found it mildly intriguing at first (following an unintentionally funny opening scene in which leading lady Olinka Berova is nearly raped by a loutish trucker who ends up trampled by his own vehicle!); however, once the scene shifts to the mythical city of Kuma, the film grinds to a halt - and, being one of Hammer's longest efforts at 101 minutes, this does it no favors at all! Though Mario Nascimbene is best-known for his scores of epic films and was probably assigned to this one for just that reason, the lounge music (including a title tune which is not half bad) he composed for the modern early scenes is actually the most effective part of his soundtrack! The cast is, again, worth discussing: Berova, who's involved in some very mild nudity throughout, is undeniably gorgeous and yet rather petite to act as a stand-in for the statuesque Ursula Andress (trivia note - reportedly, she was deported from the U.K. on suspicions of espionage!); John Richardson, repeating his role from the original film but who has turned villainous in the interim, gives a wooden performance; rugged Edward Judd always makes for a compelling lead in this type of film (I especially loved the way he put-down an exotic dance number secretly organized for his entertainment while a prisoner in Kuma!); Colin Blakely and Jill Melford as a wealthy vacationing couple (on whose yacht a distraught Berova finds herself) make a fine impression, but they unfortunately exit the proceedings very early on; Noel Willman is virtually unrecognizable as a wizened learned man of Kuma; Andre' Morell, appearing in a different role from the one he played in the original, is an embarrassment as a sort of shaman spouting mumbo-jumbo.As was the case with THE VIKING QUEEN (1967), there's some confusion with respect to the culture and the geography depicted in the film: the city of Kuma is supposed to be situated somewhere in North Africa, yet the natives - whom Judd meets during his journey to locate the kidnapped Berova - speak in Arabic. Similarly, both Morell and the high priests of Kuma are seen to be well-versed in the occult arts: I can't recall if this was as prominent a feature in the original Hammer film but, somehow, it all feels incongruous to the material!