Gunan il guerriero

It's a good film, but there's not much magic or adventure. It's got an eerie opening with a sinister voice telling us how the world began, showing dinosaurs and then the arrival of humans. It showed a star nebula in the shape of a newborn inside the womb, which was space, that it would fulfil a prophesy about a son changing the world. This is really unoriginal concept, but I gave it a chance. The storyline is okay and doesn't dwell on boring background talk, which is great, as many films do that. The swords look plastic but it doesn't matter, its fancy fantasy. It was entertaining and also fun.

I think somebody bought a video camera and decided to make a barbarian movie. Some of the "swords" look like tin foil cut into a sword shapes. The acting is, well, let's not discuss that . . . The fights are ridiculous, they don't even pretend that the swords are really cutting people. However, this movie's heart is in the right place. Whoever made it set out to make a movie about a big guy avenging his people (I think that's what was going on) and they did. No pretense, no self-importance, no pretending that this is anything special. It was made and, I bet, the people who made it were proud of themselves for the effort they put forth. Watch for the guy who looks exactly like Adam Carolla.

Gunan (Peter McCoy) and his brother (Giovanni Cianfriglia) are raised by a tribe of amazons. It is prophesied that one day, Gunan shall free the land from the evil warlord Nuriak (Emil Messina), however the first time Gunan meets his enemy, he wastes so much time talking to Nuriak that the bad guy can summon help. This never would have happened to Arnie. Anyway, while Gunan recovers from this failure, he falls in love with stunning blonde Lenna (Sabrina Siani). When Lenna becomes a captive of Nuriak, a second attempt to fulfill the prophecy is due... and this time, Gunan is really angry.

Difficult to vote for this one, as it is on one hand one of the poorest productions in the genre I've ever seen, on the other hand it is so funny sometimes! Gunan's enemies die without a drip of blood when he hits them slowly with the flat side of his sword. And then there is one extra eye-candy star for Sabrina Siani. "Gunan" director Franco Prosperi was producer of her previous movie "Mondo Cannibal" which looks like a masterpiece compared to this mess, though.

When twins survive the Ungat horde raid on Solmen and are brought up the Kuniats, as adults they compete to become Zukahn, an invincible warrior prophesied to free the land from Ungats. However, when things go awry Gunan takes on the formidable enemy himself.

The Invincible Barbarian or Gunan il guerriero is one of the first Italian Conan the Barbarian cash-ins. Director Francesco Prosper's outing suffers from all the shortfalls that many of the Italian low budget film at the time, ungainly sound design, camera work, editing and staging. Prosper's overuse of slow motion and other speeds really hampers the film further, along with the countless long and medium shots. That said, there is a handful of memorable visuals, including a beach filled with a tribe of Amazon women and a spacious fire lit cave.

Written by Piero Regnoli there plenty of slashing and sword action, however, it's plodding Roberto Pregadio's heavy handed music does inject energy into the picture. The real locations offer atmosphere and grit. The craftsmanship on the production, from the sets to weapons and costumes are well produced.

Lead Pietro Torrisi looks the part as Zukahn / Gunan, in fact uncannily he looks just like He-Man if he walked out of a frame of drawn celluloid. Top billed Malisa Longo's Marga who gets more dialogue than you can shake a stick at. Emilio Messina's Nuriak is menacing enough. Sabrina Siani as Lenni who steals the third act. Siani is undressed as the script dictates but she has screen presence. Uncomfortable rape scene aside, Siani injects some much needed life into the proceedings but is sadly underused with no real action scenes, aside from a torture device escape.

Ultimately, it not as watchable as Ator, the Fighting Eagle is a (1982), both Torrisi and Siani presence isn't enough to cement this a must see (but don't fret they both get another stab at the swords and sandals sub-genre in The Throne of Fire, Il trono di fuoco (1983)).

Sometime during the 80s, did someone market a computer program that spits out scripts for barbarian movies at random? This one is exceptionally bad (plastic weapons bend during fight scenes, fight scenes look like pro-wrestling matches, plus a load of stock footage mixed in), but I had to give it a 6, fans of the "horribly bad" movie genre will get a kick out of it.