Reviews & Ratings for
The Blade Master More at IMDbPro »Ator l'invincibile 2 (original title)

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 6:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Index

59 reviews in total

---

14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Ator fights evil in all forms including puppets., 12 November 2001

Author: Aaron1375 from Alabama

Yes this movie is obviously trying to be a Conan the Barbarian, and what amazes me is that this is a sequel (the people demanded another one?). The first part of the flick is a flashback showing the original. From what I saw it doesn't look worth checking out (and apparently Ator always kills a huge puppet in his movies). Well now Ator lives at the ends of the earth with his mute sidekick Thong. A girl seeks his help as this evil dude has her father in his custody. Let me just say this bad guy is extremely patient as the old guy constantly insults the villian and just prattles on endlessly. The bad guy waits to the very end of the movie and finally smacks the old guy around leaving you to wonder "What took him so long to snap?". Meanwhile, Ator and his sidekick and the gal go through one adventure after another. They fight cavemen, invisible soldiers (don't ask), rent a thugs, and people who worship snakes. Ator also battles a giant snake puppet and hang-glides (again, don't ask). All the while you will be thinking that Conan would kick Ator's butt.

---

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A non stop laugh fest, 12 June 2005

Author: HaemovoreRex from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Miles O'Keeffe once again assumes the role of the mighty Ator in this the first sequel to the original film.

What can I say? - This pretty much represents B-Movie Nirvana!

The plot is ludicrous, the script is terrible, the acting is hammy throughout, the special effects....well let's not even go there! - all in all this movie is a veritable delight!

Highlights of the film include Ator and Thong (his mute companion, not his undergarments) being attacked by invisible assailants in a cave (certainly saved on the fx budget there!), Ator battling what has to be the most unconvincing giant snake ever committed to celluloid, and of course, the infamous hangliding scene!

There's one question I have though......at the end of the movie we see a huge atomic explosion when Ator supposedly destroys the Geometric Nucleus (as the narrator tells us)......how in the hell did Ator destroy it and manage get out alive?! Did he fashion some form of primitive timer/detonator or something?

Oh well, such an illogical ending really only adds to the movies overall charm - they just don't make them like this anymore!

---

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Something you just have to love Cinecitta for..., 20 February 2000

Author: Pucki (markus@risser.b.uunet.de) from Berlin, Germany

I mean, you just have to love the Italian film industry. Someone came up with a post-doomsday action movie ("Road Warrior") and the Italians were busy for years doing one rip-off after another. Then some other one came up with a successful barbarian movie ("Conan") and the Italians were busy... eh, see above.

Besides countless other variations of the theme (one of my favorites is Umberto Lenzi's "The Barbarians" starring the Paul twins) the Ator series was created. And this, the second one, is probably the worst (or best, depending on your point of view).

Ator is called back into action by his old teacher, who has discovered some kind of nuclear power that, of course, has to be protected so it won't get into wrong hands. The old man sends his daughter to Ator, and after a few complications Ator, his sidekick Tong and the girl set back to the castle, which meanwhile has fallen to some evildoer (of course, an old "class mate" of Ator). Somewhere along the way the heroic trio forgets about the plot and eradicates some giant snake-worshipping cult for the fun of it (not before some virgins are sacrificed). Just in time before the madman finally loses his temper and kills the wise teacher our heroes remember their duties, invent hanggliding and grenades and save the day.

Included: terrible acting by all participants (especially O'Keeffe), incredibly hilarious "special effects" (you just have to adore the snake fight scene, which must be sort of a hommage to "Bride of the Monster"), badly staged fight scenes, numerous continuity errors (Ator flies two different hanggliders during the climatic battle, watch for it, just an example) and an overall non-understanding of the concept of history (cavemen, "civilized" barbarians, castle-builders, all thrown in one film).

If you're, like me, devoted to bad movies, this is the one of the series to see, you'll probably end up ROTFL. For the records: the Malta-filmed third part is actually quite watchable.

Considering Joe D'Amato's other efforts this is probably his most entertaining movie, as he certainly has failed to deliver watchable horror or erotic movies. But I strongly have the opinion that this was completely by accident.

---

6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Heh-Dude looks like a Lady!, 3 May 2004

Author: Diana from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

(spoilers) Horrifyingly enough, I have actually SEEN the film that this horrid film was a sequel to. It was called Ator the Fighting Eagle, and I saw it when I was just 8 years old. It made such an awful impression on me that i never forgot it. I've been an MST3K fan for a long time, so when Cavedwellers came out on tape I bought it. I was horrified to realize that it was a sequel to the wretched Ator movie that i'd seen so long ago! Ator's costume has, somehow, gotten ever skimpier than the last time i saw him. How can he wear that tiny little bikini? Doesn't he care that it shows off the fact that he has no...errr...package? And poor Thong...he gets no lines and no girl, and has to follow that frizzy haired girly doofus Ator around all the time. Has anyone else noticed that Miles O'Keefe walks like a woman? No wonder he's not interested in the pretty if somewhat lackluster Meela. The evil but prancy bad guy Zor is more to his taste, I'm sure. I loved Zor's cardboard spray painted swan helmet, and the way he spent all his time trying to touch some part of Ator. The fight scenes are so badly choreographed that its a wonder that the swords ever manage to connect. The dull old guy spends all of his time standing around looking depressed. Ator drinks from a cup given to him by a guy who hates him, and then looks surprised that they drugged him. He must be pretty smart though-he invented a hang glider in the space pf five minutes ,then flew it into a rift in the space/time continuum so that he travelled briefly into 17th century Bulgaria. That was after he stabbed the giant snake puppet, of course, and saved the post coital Meela while she sat around doing absolutely nothing. The real hero of the movie was Thong, who saved Ator several times from his boundless stupiditiy, and killed the evil Zor in the bargain. Kudos to Thong, the only competent person in the whole film.

---

9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Great MST3K fodder!, 30 June 2002
Author: Shannon from So*Cal

It wasn't until the end of the MST3K episode did I note that there was a guy in a fight scene wearing glasses and tire marks where Ator was riding his horse.

This movie stunk like yesterday's gym socks (at least it wasn't bad as 'Manos'). The only things that were good about it were the hunky, Conan dude, Ator, and the riffings from Joel and the bots.

What I can't understand is how the shots of the white guy and the black guy (in the beginning and the end of the film) have anything to do with the movie? It looks like they were extras off of the film of "Ben Hur" or something.

---

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Also called Cave Dwellers or REALLY BAD ITALIAN FILM, 31 October 1999
Author: GeneralB from PA

A bad low budget flick, it is a real pain to watch. The scenes shown in the credits appear to have nothing to do with the rest of the film. For some reason this movie, set in the Middle Ages, features grenades, a hanglider, and an atomic explosion. The main character, Ator, is supposed to be hero because he can defeat puppet snakes and spiders. For some reason the writers decided to name his sidekick "Thong"(or is it "Fong"?). This movie was just another reason to change the channel until MST3K came along, and, as always, made it very enjoyable. At the end, they give a hilarious review of all the film's continuity problems. The film is titled Cave Dwellers when shown in MST.

---

8 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Watch the MST3K version of this movie!, 9 June 2000
Author: wishkah7 from Brooklyn, NY. (Where I'm from originally.)

As a fan of Grade Z movies myself I'll say this as a word of kindly advice: don't watch this movie as it is!!! You've been warned! This movie has tons of continuity problems and the special effects are unbelievably horrible!!!

Cave Dwellers or The Blade Master (or whatever you like to call it) is set in the Middle Ages, right? Ator and his friends set out to fight some evildoer who sacrifices young girls to an anaconda, and along the way they fight cavemen, invisible swordsmen, an anaconda puppet, and get this, they have to protect the earth from a bomb called a "Geometric Neucleus" that posesses nuclear power!

MST3K had every right to make fun of the hidiously terrible movie. Since when was there hang gliders, hand grenades, and nuclear power back in the Middle Ages?! Other bloopers that were mentioned were the hang gliding scene, and as anyone can see, Ator was flying over a modern city, and a caveman wearing sunglasses? And who can forget the infamous 'tire tracks' in the background at the end of the movie? Heck, even Joel and the 'bots were complaining about this literally bad movie!

If you're a fan of bad movies and you want to check this one out, it's only worth watching on MST3K! Another thing I can't believe is that these Ator flicks even had a prequel and some sequels! You would probably feel sorry for Miles O'Keefe for even participating in such stupidity of this type of entertainment. But the movie is funny, and the MST3K version is even funnier.

---

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Hey, those ain't Ator's Opening Credits!, 28 December 1998

Author: Gislef from Iowa City, IA

The credits come from the Sandy Frank stitching job that was made to turn this movie into Cave Dwellers for re-release. Now that that's cleared up...oh! Excruciating, eye-gouging pain. Blade Master leaps shamelessly on the sword & sorcery bandwagon started by the Conan flicks...except the bandwagon never left the garage anyway. As such, this Italian flick is a dud trying to rip-off a box office dud, with predictable results. However, this would give too little credit to the director and writers, who make no effort whatsoever to maintain a coherent plot, continuity, any semblance of era-accurate continuity. Miles O'Keefe is no leading man, now or forever (Tarzan The Ape Man proved that, if Ator didn't). Just an unlikeable picture and a chore to watch.

---

5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Ator's hairdo is so queer, 13 June 1999

Author: paulo20 from NYC

There's simply no redeeming quality about this film. OK, some of the costumes are OK, but they're nothing you can't see in, say, the Conan flicks. And what's up with Ator's hair? I can't believe this is part of a series! I will say one thing about this film: it was deemed bad enough for a righteous lampooning by the early cast of MST3K and I suggest to anyone that's curious enough to see how bad this film is to watch that version of the film for moral support if nothing else.

---

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
A poor movie from a badly treated genre, 5 March 2004

Author: kilgore2345 (kilgore2345@hotmail.com) from Chambana

There are plenty of reviews that describe this movie as the worst ever made. For sure there are plenty of mistakes: lackluster acting, rather boring and cliched and at times paradoxical script, and the stock B-movie sound and "special" effects. As noted, there are plenty of glosses of plot, making _Cave Dwellers_ a tissue of fantasy film, especially in comparison with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, this movie is not the worst movie ever. Most, if not all, (including this review) of these reviews are written by fans of MSTK3. Therefore, many of these reviews are pretty much summaries of the MSTK3 episode of _Cave Dwellers_.

In the episode, Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow remark to the Mad Scientists that this is the worst movie ever sent to them. Of course, loyal fans have taken this quote and ran with it. I have found this movie endearing-not in a way that one finds _Forrest Gump_ endearing-but in the effort put into this movie by some the cast. Also, this movie is laughable without its MSTK3 treatment. That is because _Cave Dwellers_ does not take itself seriously, and it is not trying to import into its viewers some sort of righteous theme. For all of the monster puppets, medieval hang gliding, and continuity lapses-this movie does not advertise to be any more that what it is, a shallow depiction of a rather shallow genre.

Likewise, I can't bring myself to hate Miles O'Keeffe or Lisa Foster. Instead this hatred is for Coleman Francis, Tony Cardoza, Jennifer Lopez, Arch Hall, Jr., and so on.

---

---

Page 1 of 6:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Add another review

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Ratings	External reviews
Plot keywords	Main details	Your user reviews
Your vote history