Willow

I had never seen Willow before it was nominated to be watched by a friend of mine. It was his childhood fantasy movie much like Lord of the Rings are for a bunch of people today. It had elements I knew I'd like so why it took me so long to watch it is a mystery.

A prophecy about a child being the downfall of an evil sorceress makes her imprison all the pregnant women in the kingdom. When that specific child is born, she is whisked away to safety and eventually is found by Willow, a dwarf. He is tasked with taking the child back to the humans so they can care for her. Soon Willow finds himself on a real adventure, not only fighting for the child's life, but fighting for his own.

Val Kilmer is my boy and it's depressing to see him in his current state. Here he shows charisma, great comedic timing and a sense of adventure. He has really good chemistry with Warwick Davis, as does the rest of the cast. The special effects are decent for the time and the story takes a classic tale and continues to find entertainment value out of it. It really does feel like an adventure as the landscape we inhabit changes from forest to village to snowy mountains and castles.

I always felt like this was one of those weird one-off fantasy films that only a few people know about. It never became an epic series or really famous in the zeitgeist, so it fell to the shadows.