(Big Sky Video/Beyond)

Savage ferret fantasy

The Beastmaster follows the generic fantasy movie plot – the son of a king whose throne has been stolen comes back for revenge, rescuing a girl and forming a small army of buddies along the way – with a single twist. Dar (Marc Singer), the hero, can talk to animals. He does everything your typical fantasy hero does, but he does it with a panther, an eagle and a couple of cute ferret-looking things by his side. Unlike certain other movies of its type, The Beastmaster was at least put together professionally. It’s well-shot and dramatic, some of the stunts are impressive and they’ve built a convincing little world out in the Californian desert where it was shot. Rip Torn, fondly remembered as Artie from The Larry Sanders Show, is amusing as an evil high priest with a ludicrous fake nose and the other actors are competent. It may be clichéd and lazy, casually forgetting characters when they stop being important – there’s a scene where our heroes rescue a group of slaves, all of whom bar the love interest mysteriously vanish between shots because they’ve become redundant – but it’s put together well enough to be watchable. Plus, it has Rip Torn being attacked by a ferret.

**½

JODY MACGREGOR

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