Gor

I've read some of the Gor books and enjoyed them. (Norman's later writing became far too sexist for me to stomach, but the first several are pretty good stories if you like the genre.)

But this movie *totally* sucked and about the only thing one could do with it is to have MST3000 do their thing (good luck). I turned it off after about 15 minutes and was seriously tempted to burn the video store's copy to spare anyone else the pain of seeing the thing.

Try, if you can, to imagine Disney's fantasy/sci-fi mega-budget flop John Carter as if it had been made in the '80s by The Cannon Group, producers of such cinematic clunkers as Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, American Ninja, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. This might give you some idea of what Gor is like: dreadful production values, a terrible script, lousy action, unconvincing sets, cheap costumes, and a cast of has-beens and never-weres directed by the man responsible for Stephen King dud Children of the Corn.

The film stars Urbano Barberini as mild-mannered physics lecturer Tarl Cabot, who is transported to the planet Gor by his magic ring, where he helps a group of brave warriors to overthrow evil despot Sarm (Oliver Reed), who has enslaved the people of nearby villages and stolen their sacred homestones. Featuring wooden performances from everyone, with the exception of Oliver Reed, who hams it up to the max (his exuberant performance no doubt aided by enough alcohol to fuel a small plane), Gor is difficult to endure, although the generous curves of sexy warrior woman Talena (Playboy playmate Rebecca Ferratti) help to ease the pain just a little.

1 out of 10, with a generous extra point added for the battle of the bad '80s hair-dos, as Talena, with her massive rock-babe barnet, fights another woman sporting crimped blonde locks.

I have to admit I had fun to watch it and I didn't turn it off so it can't be that bad. The acting didn't even appear that bad but maybe because I watched it in German and probably the dubbing was good. This movie hadn't a big budget but also far away from the smallest of this B-Movie Fantasy kind. The dialogs were quite simple and cheesy but not too stupid. It had some moments. I liked the music, it was old-school Fantasy/Sci-Fi Music. The second half of the movie could have been shorter in my opinion because it did not happen that much there. Cameraman did a good job, probably one of the most skilled people who worked on this movie. I wanted some fantasy-like stuff and I got it (which isn't really easy nowadays) and it entertained me, not on the highest level possible but it was enough to fulfill my need of watching fantasy stuff, so if you have that need as well you should give it a try.

Much like the other commenters, my view is that this movie is bilge. Really it's not much different than those sword and sorcery movies that were inspired by the Conan the Barbarian movies -- this is more like Conan the Destroyer than the infinitely superior first film.

There are so many flaws, and they have been mentioned in detail in other comments, they can't all be listed, it would use up the word maximum.

Suffice it to say that this is in the area of "Ator the Fighting Eagle" style flicks, very low budget, no talent to speak of in the direction or cast, and the writing is atrocious.

It is too bad, it appears the makers figured they could make the same movie, with the silly comic relief, that they've made dozens of times before, slap the "Gor" name on it, and people would watch it if they were into the books.

The Gor books do merit a movie, and the makers wouldn't even need too large a budget, though it would help since the world Norman created is quite intricate. And yes, the sexual aspect can be pretty adult in the books, the latter ones anyway. But the first few are pretty tame in that regard.

Still, a reasonably budgeted R-rated movie with a talented director (get Milius!) could have been made and would likely been successful.

A low budget Conan style movie, where all there budget probably went on paying Oliver Reed and Jack Palance. The acting is really bad and the script is terrible. Apart from seeing a very fit woman (Rebecca Ferretti) in hardly any clothing, this movie has no pluses. Having said that, I saw a sequel was made, so I'll probably watch it.