Surprisingly incoherent and boring

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is without doubt one of the toughest Italian sword and sandal movies I have sat through. I will admit that it's not completely without merit - the location shooting in Egypt does provide at times a somewhat eye-catching backdrop. But a pretty look does not a film make. The movie has many problems, but I think the most pressing is that it is surprisingly boring. There aren't that many action sequences, and the few that there are come across as absolutely flat, being given passionless choreography and clunky direction. And between those drab action scenes, viewers will be subjected to a really slow story and endless sequences of dry chat. As for the movie's title protagonist, I don't think it was a good idea to make him invulnerable to practically everything - knowing that he doesn't stand a chance of being killed or even hurt, no tension is ever built, nor does the viewer feel any empathy for this guy, since he never has to struggle. Definitely one time when being stuck in public domain hell is well deserved.

Although Steve Reeves is the first name which comes to mind when one thinks of "Peplum" movies – and with good reason since he was the subgenre's first (and perhaps only) bona-fide star – the sheer fact that I was introduced to them as a kid in the early 1980s via Italian TV broadcasts of MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1961) and GOLIATH AND THE SINS OF BABYLON (1963) has made me look out for Mark Forest's movies more than any of the others who have likewise stepped in the sandals of such muscle-bound heroes over the years. Indeed, out of 14 titles in Forest's filmography, I have now watched all but one – THE MAGNIFICENT GLADIATOR (1964). The film under review, then, made when the mythological epics had been overtaken in popularity by the newest fad in Italian cinema i.e. Spaghetti Westerns, was his last film appearance since, unlike his contemporaries, he apparently chose not to diversify his curriculum – even though he was a professional singer and a qualified teacher of that art form! Rather than bow out playing in any one of the roles that had made his name like Hercules and Maciste, Forest's final star vehicle was an "Arabian Nights"-type fable with his superpowers – emphatically stated in the film's very title – here being attributed not to any blood relation to the gods but having his mother being hit by a lightning bolt during the fatal childbirth. This conveniently satisfies a prophecy that this kingdom's first-born can only ever be harmed by "a red flower". Needless to say, a band of rogue desert nomads come to hear of this through the duplicitous court maid and they kidnap the child and murder the latter witness. Curiously enough, the villain (Mimmo Palmara) dispatches his newly-acquired son to be raised by an old woman in a remote part of the sand dunes and only returns to claim him 30 years later!; by that time, he has not only grown into Mark Forest but his favourite past time seems to be swimming in crocodile-infested waters while racing and daring them to catch up with him (even if he is still unaware of his extraordinary powers)! Once he is back into the fold of Palmara's tent encampment, he is belatedly and summary trained in the art of war and sold to the troops – by ordering his astonished archers to cut down his own son with arrows – as their secret weapon against the armies of Forest's real sovereign father – led by his younger brother Howard Ross (here still billed under the more colourful moniker of "Red Ross").True to formula, given that there are two brothers and two battling factions in the narrative, there must also be two women, one who divides the siblings and one who comes between putative father and adopted son; the former is played by the unlikely-named Dea Flowers (in what appears to be her only role) and the sultry Rosalba Neri fills the latter. Flowers is bethrothed to Ross but soon falls for Forest's tender loving care when kidnapped by Palmara's clan and supposedly given to him as a slave; similarly, Neri is the rebel leader's favourite but soon falls under the spell of Forest's brawny figure. During the course of the film, the two brothers are unknowingly engaged in a duel to the death but the kind-hearted Forest is somehow unwilling to go through with it and spares Ross' life; later still, while ostensibly employed to insinuate himself into the enemy fortress, Forest gets to learn the truth after meeting his father and brother face to face. Needless to say, our hero turns against Palmara and executes him – but not before Neri sacrifices her life for him to "the red flower" (which turns out to be plain fire after all) – and new Prince Regent Ross relinquishes his bride-to-be Flowers to a modest family life in the desert oasis Forest inhabited as a kid.All in all, while not a particularly outstanding entry in the genre, this proved a surprisingly decent and enjoyable one which I came across dubbed in English on "You Tube" – especially in view of the fact that it was Forest's swan-song, was directed by Civirani – who had made the latter's weakest effort, HERCULES AGAINST THE SONS OF THE SUN (1964) – and, what is more, was originally titled very similarly to Antonio Margheriti's ANTHAR L'INVINCIBLE aka THE DEVIL OF THE DESERT AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1964) starring Kirk Morris that I just caught up with a few days ago, which ought to have spelled redundancy!

As foretold by the prophets there would one day arise a man who was born of lightning and would be invincible. And that's who Mark Forest plays in Kindar The Invulnerable.Someone must have been reading Superman comics and decided to create a Superman like character for their sword and sandal film. Forest is impervious to all, swords, spears, rocks. There is something in the prophecy also about a red flower being his Kryptonite, but no one can figure that one out.This was the last film made by Mark Forest aka Lou Degni of Brooklyn who went to Italy to study opera and paid his way through the lessons by doing these muscle films. He was the best looking of all the muscle dudes who were glutting the market with these epics in the early Sixties. I sincerely hope he had a good career in opera to make up for some of these films. He certainly had a focus.

...and yet this is probably Mark Forest's best film.I've purchased the WARRIORS DVD pack, which has 50 Sword & Sandal films included in one single package. The quality ranges from execrable to pretty decent action films. Of all the films I've watched up to now, this will probably be the most difficult one to review because part of it is bad but then some part it is pretty decent, in fact, surprisingly good. Because the transfer and image quality on the DVD was almost unwatchable, I cannot give an accurate opinion about the actual production qualities of the movie but needless to say, I have a good eye for these things and here's my rundown of KINDAR THE INVULNERABLE.Let's start with the bad: The acting is pretty bad. Mark Forest will never be mistaken as a great actor but in this movie he gives new meaning to wooden. Actors who played Hercules or Maciste or Goliath were never great actors to begin with and the producers of these movies sometimes compensated for this weakness by hiring dependable actors for the other roles. Not in this movie. Many of the other actors are weak, including the usually dependable Mimmo Palmara, who for some reason here overacts shamelessly.The direction is odd. A lot of scenes shot from faraway. So faraway that the only thing you see are human figures set against the desert with the dubbed voices booming out of nowhere. You know the actors are there somewhere but I couldn't make out who was who. It's like watching "radio".Speaking of voices, the dubbing and dialogue can only be described as all out terrible. The actor who dubbed Mark's dialogue was all wrong and his booming voice didn't match the beefy actor at all. During fights or any moment when characters are huffing or grunting, the dubbing makes it sound like someone is spitting on the microphone. I kid you not. Bad dubbing is not really the fault of the original filmmakers' vision but more the fault of the US distributors. Hopefully, the original Italian dialogue is not this bad.The film has some long moments. Even at 98 minutes, it felt like it lasted over 2 hours. Not a good sign for an action flick. The pacing would be improved considerably with a little editing here and there.Now with the good:Some action scenes are excellent. The fighting scene between Kindar and his brother is the highlight of the film. The location during that scene is amazing. I don't know where this sequence was shot but it was startling.The beginning is also startling. We see and hear a woman giving birth and then a lightning bolt strikes the bed and Kindar is born (and the reason why he's "invulnerable"). This scene is unintentionally funny because of combining a lightning bolt with a birth (!) but it's very surprising to see a woman giving birth to a child, with moans and all, in a kids picture made in 1964.Mark Forest as never been in better shape. He wears tights throughout the movie, which leaves nothing to the imagination. Sexually sensitive Fanboys beware.The sometimes bad acting is compensated by the fact that the cast is uniformly good looking. Mimmo Palmara, Dea Flowers, Howard Ross and most especially Rosalba Neri are all at their prime in regards to their looks. Rosalba is truly gorgeous as Kira. What a screen presence. And lastly, some shots are almost poetic. For instance, the last scene, when Mark and Dea stand against a river, with pyramids on the other side of the river, the reflection of those pyramids can be seen in the water. The effect is cool, subtle and very effective.There's another great moment in KINDAR: when Seymuth (Mimmo) is defeated and returns to his tribe. We see him with his dejected soldiers walking towards the camera in one long static shot. It's a beautiful moment. The music during that scene is excellent.Like I said, KINDAR is wildly inconsistent in regards to its level of quality. Something tells me that a good, clean transfer, with the original widescreen ratio aspect and Italian soundtrack would boost the quality of this Sword & Sandal. The pacing would still be too slow but still a vast improvement over what's currently available on DVD now. For now, this is my favorite Mark Forest S&S flick and one of the most original Peplums out there.