Watch Max Magician and the Legend of the Rings For Free

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

My cousins fished this out of the Walmart value bin, along with many other classics, like the "The New Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Tommy: Lost in the Jungle" cartoons. BUT THIS IS LIVE-ACTION. You get to see real people, in 3D, working their magic(*wink-wink*). Everyone who has watched this film is lucky. The cast, the story, the setting...all masterfully done. Dissenters simply don't understand king things. I am certain that I am right. A fool? I AM NOT!

Someone bought me this DVD for Xmas about four years ago, and I never opened it or watched it until recently. Let's say I severely regretted doing so. I honestly should have chucked it unopened in the garbage bin after I came to this website and checked the reviews. Too bad I can't turn back time, like an hour and a half of it approximately.I hate to bash movies, but this one is begging for it. I have watched quite a few low budget movies, some of them being fantasy/sci-fi. The low production values are usually a little bit of a distraction, but a strong script and good acting can pick up the slack in other areas of the movie at least enough for me to enjoy it. That is SO not the case here.There are a few good things about the movie and I'll list them first so I won't seem 'biased'. 1. Whoever did the make-up did a fairly decent job. 2. Max is a cute kid 3. Fetch is hot and I love his accent and 4. The princess is very pretty. That's about it. Everything else was just god awful, the worse thing being the sound. It doesn't line up with the voices, the sound goes in and out, there are strange noises in the background, etc. The sound effects are also extremely cheesy. Basically it's a hot tranny mess all up in the sound department.The next worst thing is the special effects. I wouldn't call them 'special' by any means. I actually thought this was a much older movie because the effects make it look extremely dated. Whoever imposed the 'sparkles' on the film had a computer that was about 20 years old. Anybody, even my mother-in-law (who can't use a computer to save her life) who owns a recent computer, can make better special effects than what are shown in this movie. I kid you not.Next is the acting. Actually, I wouldn't call it that--I'd call it 'reading off of a poster board in the background'. This isn't the worst movie I've seen (though it makes the top 5) but in terms of acting ability, it is the only film I've ever seen where not one person in the film can talk like a real live human being. I swear they all sound like robots (which would have probably have made it a cooler movie).The plot--oh, I don't know--I have seen lamer plots, but this one is pretty bad. There is absolutely nothing original about it. It freely rips off ideas from much better movies--like Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, etc., but it most resembles The Neverending Story. It pains me to think of the wreck they made of my favorite childhood movie. I'll never be able to watch it in the same way again.All in all, this movie is really horrible and I beg you not to see it. Though, actually, I thought of another thing that was good about it. 5. It gives amateur filmmakers hope, because I can't think of anyone who could make a movie and do a worse job. Anybody, even someone who's never directed, acted or even seen a movie before could make a far superior film and have thousands upon thousands of DVD's created and placed in the bargain bin at Wal-Marts all over the country. I don't know how to act or direct but it might be worth it for me to make a low budget Merchant-Ivory type film. At least I know how to write a decent script and my computer is only a year old instead of 20. Just those two things would make my movie infinitely better than this one, and your amateur movie, no matter the genre or plot, would be an improvement on this one also.

The "let's make a cheap (CHEAP) fantasy film" industry has over the years managed to generate at least as much bad acting as old westerns, 1930s-40s serials, Ed Wood films, and porn that aspires to plot lines. And it must be observed that Charles Middleton and Harry Reems (e.g.) could display some slight modicum of the thespian muse -- of which in this mutt of a film there isn't the slightest trace.Imagine an average High School English class, slogging through a Shakespeare play by reading the parts and hating them. No, the acting here isn't that bad -- it's worse. The impression can't be avoided that that --um, "performers" in this film were selected based precisely on their inability to register emotion. We will dispense with the usual listing of the (understandably unknown) names in order to protect the guilty.Overall, "Max Magician" is unusually derivative, unimaginative, and overwritten, even for a 3-day-wonder very-low-budget fantasy film. The situations that occur are frequently contrived to the point of absurdity and with an eye toward cheap melodrama.The plot, such as it is, involves a kid named Max who has difficulties with a school bully (how original!) and is a not untalented amateur magician. He's given an obviously ancient book of (real) magic spells by an elderly neighbor, with the advice to "believe in yourself". Nobody ever explains what this means, but in every crisis the kid has somebody (a mouse or a hawk or whatever) yelling this generic bit of street-corner philosophy at him.Max uses the book to enter a fantasy world in which there is a developing struggle between elves, trolls, and other inmates of your usual $5-per-CD role-playing game. A deus-ex-machina wizard shows up to teach him to use the spells in his book whilst dispensing platitudinous advice that makes Polonius look like a sage.Max uses his newfound magic to assist the elves and their friends against the evil troll king (or whatever he is with the ostentatious horns on his head). Max's late confrontation with the latter doesn't amount to much but is nonetheless decisive. The "rings" of the title are a direct steal in basic concept from Tolkien, but have neither a legend nor a significant role to play in the film. In the end there is another confrontation between Max and the bully -- which, however, is unsatisfactorily indecisive.I wish I could tell you that "Max Magician" has some redeeming feature or features. Alas. While the print used on the DVD is quite clear, it only serves to emphasize how cheesy the "magic" effects (such as they are) appear. Oddly, the makeup isn't all that bad, although elf ears are no more convincing than convention-issue Spock ears. Special effects are minimal and are generally foggy and sparkly effects superimposed on the film. The script, including the mandatory bwa-ha-ha-has from the chief bad guy, lurches from banality to banality.I don't recommend this film, even for children. We have to maintain some sort of minimum quality standard insofar as they're concerned. Besides, anybody over the age of 5 (if not younger) will watch this with the constant thought that, "Gee, I could be watching mud wrestling instead." It's instructive to note that prices for used copies on Amazon have plummeted to $0.01 (yep, 1 cent) ... although some idiot thinks he's going to get $50 for it. Probably from some other idiot.

Max Magician is a very good kids film. It has mythical creatures, heroic kids (and adults), excellent fantasy combat (no blood), and other things that make it great for kids. (Adults will find it amusing as well.) It shows that being brave and standing up for what you think is right will make a difference - even if you are a kid.The lead good-guys are all kids who do an excellent job acting. This will appeal to kids who watch it and who can identify with the actors.I highly recommend it as a very good kids fantasy film.PS: A bit of trivia: for those who are familiar with the Maryland Renaissance Festival, a lot of the scenes (including the village and combat scenes) were filmed there.Priestwood