Arabian Nights
by Steve Barron
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alan Bates, James Frain, Jason Scott Lee, Mili Avital, Tchéky KaryoDirector: Steve Barron
Brand: Lions Gate
Producer: Dyson Lovell
Producer: Howard Ellis
Producer: Nigel Wooll
Producer: Peter Barnes
Writer: Peter Barnes
Producer: Robert Halmi Jr.
Producer: Robert Halmi Sr.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 175 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-08-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Arabian Nights
Movie Review: The Finest TV Movie Ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
Arabian Nights is a spectacularly lavish fantasy!Based on the 1001 Arabian Nights that Schiharazade told the sultan every night to keep him in suspense and keep him from executing her! The story is marveously played out. It does not suffer the burden of being a TV movie and lacking the budget and grand scope of a movie but instead acts takes advantage of the fact that it is a TV show! Originally on television the story was divided into two separate two-hour parts, told different nights. But on DVD it plays just as a movie would, with lavish, larger-than-life sets that needed to be just right for the movie to succeed. And succeed the movie does, marvelously in fact.
Telling 5 main stories in addition to the main story that's being played out. The stories are, in order: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (An expertly told adaption of the classic arabian tale with fine acting and even a twist ending that will please everyone), The Sultan's Jester (An amusing story that I had not heard before about a court jester who accidentally chokes on a fishbone and dies, the people who he was dining with, thinking that they had killed the Sultan's beloved jester, leave the body at the door of a doctor who also believing he'd killed the jester, brings him to another person's house and so on, all and all an amusing, well told tale), Aladdin and the Magic Lamp (The longest, biggest and most lavishly told of the 5 tales, Aladdin recounts the tale we all know, but a seemingly different, more authentic, and interesting version. Look for John Leguizemo of Moulin Rouge, and Collateral Damage as the genie), Never Tell the Same Joke Twice (A very interesting and seemingly new tale that ties the two main characters in the real story into this story. A tale that has the sultan playing jokes on one of his particular citizens by having him go from a drunk to waking up as the Sultan and then back and forth. All and all very amusing and even funny), The last story, surely one of the best, is a magical tale that tells the story of three brothers who go out on a quest to find the greatest gift on earth. A tale of love, hope, and brotherhood. Spectacular), abrubtly after this story ends we are thrust into a battle between the sultan and his evil twisted brother bent on revenge. The sultan uses something from each one of the stories told to him by the beautiful Schiherazade to fight the battle.
The running time for the entire film is just under 3 hours.
The time moves fast though, and the virtues of having this movie on DVD are clear once you see it on the disc. One wishes they could have recorded a commentary for the movie but alas, there is none as it is a TV movie. All in all a spectacular epic fantasy!
Summary of Arabian Nights
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