Force Fed Films: Erik the Viking (1989)

I'm not sure where Puneet found or heard about this movie, but it's certainly an odd one. For this week's Force Fed Films, he made me watch the 1989 comedy Erik the Viking. At first glance it shows quite a bit of promise as it has John Cleese and Terry Jones, both of Monty Python fame! Unfortunately instead of the rest of the Monty Python cast, we get Mickey Rooney and Tim Robins. I don't know about you, but when I think Tim Robins, I don't think comedy. So basically I was hoping for the best, expecting the worst. You can see how it all went after the jump.


Things don't start off too bad. Erik the Viking has a pretty good story. It's the age of Ragnarok and Fenris the wolf has swallowed the sun and put the word into eternal winter. Erik decides he's tired of raping and pillaging and convinces his people to journey out to find Valhalla and convince the gods to rid the world of Fenris, thus bringing back the sun.

The first thing that struck me was how good the scenery and sets were. Sure it's an older film (21 years to be precise) so you're bound to see flaws in some of it. But overall I thought the areas our viking cast travel to were quite good. I guess I could describe it as being roughly on par with the set design of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So props to the props department and set designers.

I quite enjoyed the adventure they went on as well. Fighting sea monsters and Halfdan the Black's evil horde, finding the Isle of Hy-Brasil and it's unique residents, and finally to Valhalla. I found the fantasy elements to be fun and interesting and effects of these places to be quite good. So as an adventure/fantasy movie, it's actually pretty good.

Hy-Brasil is definitely not what vikings are used to

The biggest problem with Erik the Viking is that it's just not all that funny. Considering this is marketed primarily as a comedy, that's not very good. There were plenty of scenes I found amusing, like when Erik meets the gods, but I also never found myself laughing hysterically. It's a very dry sort of comedy however, and isn't that far off the type of humor that you typically find in Monty Python. To be sure, John Cleese and Terry Jones were good, but I felt the rest of the cast was a little lacking in their comedic timing. Unfortunately there's not very many of the original Monty Python cast in this, and I really didn't find Tim Robins funny at all. Of course that could just be me.

In summary, I found Erik the Viking to be more enjoyable as an adventure and fantasy movie than as a comedy. I almost think I would have preferred it if it was played serious the whole time instead of just for little bits. I don't think it's really worth seeking out, but if you stumble across it on TV, I don't think you'll be wasting your time. And who knows, maybe you'll be one of the few who will find it completely hilarious in addition to the cool little quest through the land of vikings!