Gor

Fritz Kiersch, this cinematic abortion's "director", has got to be one of the most completely untalented hacks working behind the lens. (If you've ever seen the original "Children of the Corn", you'll know what I mean.) The fight scenes here are SO incredibly lame. I've seen 2nd graders stage better mock combats in school plays. It doesn't help that the script seems to have been written by a moronic middle-schooler. No cliché goes unturned here, no mundane sword-&-sorcery trope untouched. I read the first three of John Norman's 'Gor' books when I was in high school and much more interested in the genre, and even then I didn't think that they were anything special. But at least they held my attention for the first few books in the series (probably mainly because of the sexy Boris Vallejo covers and the stories' liberal doses of bondage-themed sex). This movie has none of those elements. The only two good things about it are the vigorous, hearty (and often inappropriately utilized - good job, Fritz, you inept stooge) musical score and Rebecca Ferrati's breasts. (Wait - is that three things?)

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.

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.

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.

American professor Tarl Cabot is transported via a magical ring to planet Gor, where he must help an oppressed country overthrow its evil king and his barbarian henchmen.

Apparently this film was widely criticized for being campy, and also has come under attack from feminists for its sexist point of view. Of course, I cannot say it is not campy, but I will say that in some ways that is part of the charm. As for the sexism, well... this is another world. Should the attitudes of the people in this invented world be held against the film as a whole? (Honestly, I found it very tame -- not nearly as sexist as, say, "A Boy and His Dog".) We have the great Jack Palance and Hammer veteran Oliver Reed... how do you beat that?