Gor (1987)

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I've watched a lot of bad movies in my day, but this had to be one of the worst. No redeeming qualities really as everything is awful, from the dubbing, to the action, to the costumes and sets, to the fact that it's nothing like the books at all. Why even call this Gor? It's not like the series was so hot that they were going to get loads of mad GOR fan cash... As is, they kept almost nothing that made the books unique and decided to just make a bland, cheapo sword and sandal knock off. Waste of time.

The only thing in Gor that showed any signs of energy and effort was the music score, even if the placement didn't always come off right that at least had some vigour and soul. And there is the odd moment that offers some very mild cheesy fun.Other than that Gor, for personal tastes and many others, was extremely weak. It is very cheap-looking, the photography for the cheapest-looking fantasy TV show is better-looking than the slapdash photography for Gor, the sets are drab, the effects look half-finished and the costumes is reminiscent of plastic and left-over fabric. The dialogue is incredibly inane, it offers some mild campy amusement to begin with but gets really tiresome after a while, and so unnatural its flow that it's like hearing some really bad dubbing. Gor's story lacks any kind of wonder, excitement, fun or suspense(sense also applies here). Instead it has many daft and irrelevant scenes, is so episodic in structure that it becomes painfully predictable and while it was never easy fully understanding what was happening the final third really took the biscuit, being deadly dull and incoherent. The ending is rather abrupt as well and the fight scenes are hilariously bad, primary school playground fighting is better choreographed and more realistic-looking.The characters are too cardboard and act far too obtusely to allow us to properly connect with them or be interested in them. The film shows a completely inept character at work in Fritz Kiersch and the acting from the two leads is atrocious, Rebecca Ferratti's sexiness is not enough to make up for very expressionless acting and Urbano Barberini is even worse, his cornball line delivery gets annoying fast and he spends the entire duration acting like a buffoon. Gor also has two talented actors on board, unfortunately their talents are very poorly utilised. Oliver Reed is underused and while he always excelled in villain roles this saw Reed going through the motions. Jack Palance is even more wronged, like Reed it was playing villains where he particularly excelled as an actor but that doesn't translate here, his appearance is pretty pointless actually(screen time and purpose of character) and he spent his whole screen time confused and pained.Overall, extremely weak aside from the music with two talented actors embarrassingly wasted in roles that would have suited them to the ground if treated right. 2/10 Bethany Cox

I didn't think it was possible to make a movie worse than Lange's (Norman's real name) crappy novels. How anyone with an IQ over a snail could real all that garbage boggles the mind.A friend got a copy of this movie and for 15 minutes we had some fun laughing at it. We never finished. It was just that bad. Why it's not on the list of worst movies ever made is beyond me.If you read the books, maybe you can stomach this. But then if you have read all of Lange's books, I would never trust your judgements on movies or anything.The less said about this and the books, the better.

Very sad how they turned a couple of fantastic books into a travesty of a movie. The movies did not do these books justice. Terrible acting, awful screenplay, and inferior directing with not-so-special effects. Sesame Street caliber. Very disappointing ..... this movie could've, and SHOULD'VE, been so much better.The first book was the best. The unknowing hero (Tarl) is plucked from earth to a similar planet on the other side of the sun, and trained be a great warrior. He encounters various fantastic creatures, an evil ruler, beautiful scantily clad women, and a civilization that considers him an outlaw since he "belongs" to no city. The planet is run by the powerful yet mysterious Priest-Kings, who set a limit on advancement and keep the world in a quasi-medieval age. They live up in a huge mountain that is seemingly impossible to breach. No one has seen them, although many have witnessed their fury when a rule is broken.The first 3 books are in my collection. That's all I wanted out of the 20-something books by John Norman. After the 3rd, where Tarl goes up the mountain to defiantly confront the Priest-Kings, there really didn't need to be more.The series began to drop off considerably after that. Women were mostly slaves throughout the series of books. In the 2nd book one of the main female characters was leader of a city, while a few others in the first 5 were aggressive and headstrong. They weren't all submissive all of the time, which provided a few well-timed surprises. The only thing that bored me was Norman's endless descriptions of Gor's culture. This slowed the pace that kept me interested, so I just bypassed those parts when I ran into them. I'm sure a few nerds chose to get involved in the entire culture, similar to many in the Star Trek universe who got into speaking Klingon.I read up to book 5 and wasn't too impressed with the 4th and 5th. The stories became repetitive with Tarl being captured (again!) and Norman got really hardcore with the female slave subject. Just too over the top in my opinion. The rest of the series is worthless after the 1st 3, I wouldn't take any of the later books even if someone offered them for free.I absolutely LOATHE remakes, but if EVER a movie or series of movies needed to be remade, it's these. No list of big names needed, I'd be happy with all unknowns if they did it right. With the special effects of today, we could witness a wonderful story brought to the big screen (the right way!), and the majestic Tarns in glorious flight.A generous 2 stars out of 10. Let's see someone try this again, please.