Jonathon Dabell The John Norman "Gor" series gets a thoroughly shoddy screen treatment with this hopeless Italian entry in the sword 'n' sorcery genre. Norman's novels blended magic and fantasy with elements of erotica, and the early entries in the series were quite highly regarded (though later ones received increasingly negative reviews). There is none of the sexual stuff in this film version and anyone expecting to be titillated will be sorely disappointed. In fact, anyone expecting to be entertained will be disappointed too – this is one of those films that bears few, if any, redeeming qualities.A nerdy American college professor, Tarl Cabot (Urbano Barberini), is involved in a car crash, but his body is catapulted by magic to another planet. This other planet, named Gor, is terrorised by ruthless tyrant Sarm (Oliver Reed), who spends most of his time leading his army from village to village enslaving the people and stealing their homestones. Tarl arrives just in time to witness an attack on yet another community. He accidentally gets caught up in the fight and kills one of Sarm's soldiers – who happens to be Sarm's son. The people hail Tarl as a champion, a warrior from another dimension sent to overthrow Sarm. It soon becomes apparent that this timid scholar is far from a hero, and he has to be trained in combat ready for his quest. Tarl and a small group of companions – among them accomplished swordswoman Talena (Rebecaa Ferratti) – set off across the desert to Sarm's realm to end his reign of fear once and for all.Where to begin with what is wrong with "Gor"? Finding fault is almost too easy – it's like tripping a handicapped kid. The performances range from the vacant (Barberini and Ferratti) to the downright bizarre (is there a scene in the whole film during which Reed appears to be fully sober?) The dialogue is utterly trite, the narrative is so episodic it becomes boringly predictable, and there is a distinct lack of conviction in the fight sequences. If Norman's novels contained any intelligent ideas, they are nowhere to be found here. The only thing saving "Gor" from a 1-out-of-10 rating is that it is at least ripe for unintentional hilarity. The joke turns a little sour when Jack Palance turns up in the final five minutes to set up a sequel – what has the population of the world done to deserve another dose of this moronic garbage?

sychonic 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.

HP Winter When I found out that there was a 'Gor' movie I was surprised, the long running series of bad pulp novels was bad enough but after finally trying to watch the movie I was amazed. Movie versions of decent books are often bad enough but this takes the prize for utter trash...and there was a sequel! In my opinion, worthless (as in not even awful enough to stand a chance of ever gaining cult status)

massive_death Man, oh man. This movie pushes the limits of badness. I can't imagine anyone watching this movie for any reason but to laugh at it. As a comedy, this is great. Witness classic moments such as when the heroes just jump into a cart being dragged across the desert, in plain view of the enemy soldiers, and nobody notices! This is a great movie to watch with a bunch of friends, especially if you like to hear your friends howling with laughter. And then, after the flick's over, you can tell them a great joke: There are people for whom Gor is a sexual fetish. And then, the punchline is that you aren't kidding.