Quest for the Mighty Sword (1990)

Director:

Joe D'Amato

Writer:

Joe D'Amato (story)

Genre:

Fantasy | Adventure

Plot:

Once upon a time a god gave a mighty sword to the king of Aquiles to bring justice to his people. Now he wants it back...

Plot Keywords:

Sequel

Cast

Eric Allan Kramer	...	Ator (as Eric Allen Kramer)
Margaret Lenzey	...	DeJanira
Donald O'Brien	...	Gunther (as Donal O'Brien)
Dina Morrone	...	Sunn
Chris Murphy	...	Skiold
Laura Gemser	...	Grimilde
Marisa Mell	...	Nephele
Don Semeraro	...	Thorn-Grindel Hagen

Also Known As:

Ator III: The Hobgoblin (International: English title)
The Hobgoblin (International: English title)
The Lord of Akili (Italy) (alternative title)

Runtime:

USA:94 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Company:

Filmirage

Movie Connections:

References Troll 2 (1990)

A movie that should win awards!

I had spent six months looking for this movie. This was for many reasons.. partly because it's director was the executive producer of 'Troll 2', and the movie was made at around the same time, and party because it was rumoured to have used one of the goblin costumes from 'Troll 2'. This I had to see.

The Quest for the mighty sword is a very interesting movie. Starring a barbarian called Ator, it is a 'Sword and Sorcery' movie with so many reasons that it should never have happened at all. TQFTMS is a culmination of almost a decade of bad movies. It is in fact the fourth movie in the 'Ator' quadrilogy. This series of movies is one that is amazing to have survived so long. The first one promotes incest, and Ator fights a giant spider. In the second he fights a giant sock puppet snake, and has a mute ninja partner called 'Thong'. By the time we get to the third, Ator has dyed his hair, grown a ponytail and gotten all arty, with scantly clad women dancing about, and very little spoken in the entire film. That'll be a new director for you. But the fourth movie, this is where the bad movie magic lives. Back with the original director (so soon? He'd only just left) but with a whole new actor for Ator, TQFTMS pulls out all the stops despite being the third lower budget sequel of an already low budget movie.

TQFTMS is the sort of movie that should win awards. It should win every kind of movie award you have never heard of. If I had a say in the Oscars, TQFTMS would be winning the following …

**Best mis-leading title in a movie* It's called 'The Quest for the mighty sword'. But Ator Jr. finds the mighty sword, within the first half hour of the movie, under a rock IN THE CAVE THAT HE LIVES IN! Some 'Quest' that was. As for the rest of the plot, he wanders about randomly until he bumps into an ex-goddess that once tried to save his dad. After shacking up with the demigod, he wanders about randomly until he bumps into his long lost cursed mum. After fixing her, he wanders about randomly until he bumps into a god-king that kidnapped his demigod lover at some random point in the movie. After that, he wanders about randomly until he is declared complete winner of the movie. Then he just wanders about randomly, but happily ever after.

**Best 'Hot-pants on a Hero'* Not entirely sure what Ator was thinking with that one. But I know what I think…. "He must work out"

**Best use of the same actor to play both father and son* So what, he's playing his seventeen year old son now? That's some acting range. It actually takes a bit of effort to work out that he is now a different character. Perhaps too much effort for a movie of this calibre.

**Best use of costume borrowed from directors other movies* For the actual use of a goblin costume from troll 2.

**Best use of the same costume for every goblin in a movie* For use of a goblin costume … er, from troll 2.

**Best use of girlie laugh for a monster* And the Goblin from troll two scores a hatrick!

**Best incestuous use of costume ideas from movies with the same character.* Isn't that the iron warrior costume from the 3rd movie? did that director let you do that after what you said about his movie?

**Best use of the 'Hero dies in the first five minutes' plot twist* I never thought I'd see that twist in a movie. Brave story choices like that kind of makes you feel alienated towards Hollywood though.

**Best use of atmosphere destroying light hearted music to represent an evil character* Oh he can't believe it, four out of four, the goblin is Ecstatic!

**Best use of XXL T-shirt to create a Siamese two headed robot* This is the stupidest robot ever. For something that was described to Ator, as practically invincible, he outsmarts it pretty easily, the old 'duck below it's field of view and sneak up from behind' trick, I bet it had never seen that one before.

**Best use of monster costumes from entirely different movies* For the use of the Japanese Godzilla costume. They did change it significantly though, by covering it in snot.

But TQFTMS gets an honourable mention for the following This is a sword and sorcery flick. I'm thinking barbarians, kings, queens, castles, and perhaps the odd legendary monster. But to have the bar scene, full of aliens, neon lighting and pub-brawls … the only thing that was missing was the blaster guns. Well done that movie! **Best use of the 'sleeping beauty' cliché in a movie.* Well, it had ripped off every other type of movie. I suppose the cartoon genre was the next obvious choice.

As you know, however, I unfortunately have no control over the Oscars (yet) and so TQFTMS will have to remain a little heard of, underdog to the big budget giants.

In Conclusion This is a movie that seems to be scraping the barrel for plot ideas. Our hero bumbles about, discovering one coincidental, yet random, event after another... and then it ends. With an absolute zero budget, Joe D'Amato thought far bigger than any sane man would, and used every corner cutting device to try and create and all action blockbuster. He failed miserably.