User reviews

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?

This movie was bad and I don't mean that in a good way. I enjoy bad films. This film was boring. For my male friends the best part of this film was the great female fight scenes which is best described in the words of one friend "Cool it's T vs A". There were only two reasons I could sit through the boredom that was this movie. First I had read Tarnsman of Gor which is a decent book even if the author goes into a psychotic misogynistics breakdown after the first 3 books in the series. Second this movie managed to rope JACK PALANCE into playing a part. I spent the whole movie waiting for Jack Palance to appear and it was almost as fruitful as waiting for Gedot. He shows up in the last 3 minutes setting up for a sequel...god I hope they don't make one. Not worth the time it took to watch.

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.

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.

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?)

As a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy, I expect a bit of cheese with the movies I sometimes force myself to watch (mostly low-budge cheese).

As a fan of the Gor books, I too was anticipating this movie when I first heard about it. I had completely forgotten about it until it was playing late night on Space channel, but yeah, the bad memories came flooding back.

This movie and John Norman's books have absolutely nothing in common. No, I don't just mean that this is a bad adaptation... NOTHING in common. This was most likely an already written story that someone pasted the Gorean names onto.

The most disturbing part is that the very thing that made the books good, Gorean society, was ignored for this crapfest. The keeping of slaves and rough-and-tumble nature of Gor is not some bad people in one distant city... it was the entire planet.

Tarl Cabot is transported to this planet, which is in orbit on the opposite side of the sun (thus explaining why we don't see it), and after his first adventure he is returned to Earth. Tarl Cabot in the books is every-man, you, me, the guys you know. At first he is horrified by what he sees, but as time passes he realizes that this simple, brutal world is actually the way humans were meant to live.

In the books, slave girls revel in their sexuality. In the movie, slave girls are props for showing how evil the evil bad man is. Pathetic.

There are movies you watch to laugh at how bad they are. I don't think this one even rises to that level. Every character is miscast, which itself is an odd accomplishment considering how poor the script is in the first place.

I've already wasted enough of my life writing this... Of all the movies on IMDb, this is one that truly offers nothing, no redeeming aspects, no moral, nothing. There is no reason to see this. Ever. Anyone. For any reason. It lacks even the cheese factor. It's just... bad.

Woof, is this a bad film! It can be quite entertaining, watched MST3K-style, but without a hearty sense of humor, this is just plain awful. It's made worse by the fact that it has almost no bearing on the novels upon which it is supposedly based. I'm not convinced anyone involved with the making of this movie (or the sequel, just as bad) read any of the books beyond the back covers.

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.

Many of the negative reviews compare this to an apparent book series. I know nothing of those books, nor their author. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie - of course in the proper context of 80's pulp sci-fantasy.

This film did not have the "big name" actors that other contemporaries did, but it was a generally coherent story. Full of cheese and B-grade schtick, this film will not inspire or thrill you as Conan may have - it is definitely on par with others (Red Sonja, Fire & Ice, etc.) It's an Italian film I gather, and if you know anything of spaghetti westerns, expect similar production value.

This is NOT for fans of "A" grade barbarian films (are there any really?), nor apparently fans of the fiction upon which this is (loosely) based.

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.

When I sat down to watch this movie the first thing I noticed was that nearly all of the voices were over dubbed, and the beginning has some of the worst over dubbing I've seen in an English language movie.

Overall the movie was pretty good, if you like Fantasy this movie is for you, if you like Rebecca Ferretti then this movie is for you....otherwise you probably won't like it.

I've read most of the Gor books and loved them all. They described an epic tale of a reluctant hero that never fails to impress in an alien world based on the most primal of human instincts reminiscent to Burroughs' fabulous John Carter of Mars tomes. This is entirely unlike the makers of this movie who have chopped the fantasy into an ugly circus sideshow. The tales of Tarl Cabot deserved much more of an effort to put on film. Robert E Howard's "Conan" character was given a visual showing thousand-folds better than Gor. The novels will live on in my memories forever and I may yet even read them again, but never will this movie enter my VCR or my mind again. Shame on them. 1 out of 10

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.

Judged on their own merits, "Gor" and "Outlaw of Gor" are enjoyable tongue-in-cheek near spoofs of the sci-fi warrior genre. The belabored Norman books are in the films given a much needed dose of humor, making them more palatable as film fare. On this basis, I found them to be agreeably entertaining. Having read the first five or so books and been impressed with the original cover art preceding Vallejo's, I had envisioned somebody like Ron Ely playing the lead, but I thought Urbano Barberini was charming as the awkward nerdly scientist who through a series of unbelievable circumstances is forced to gradually transform himself into a more primal, aggressive hunk. Yes, they were far short of the books in detail and characterizations, but that only helped to liven what would have been a deadly slow pace. I suggest that the many negative critics of these films take a look at "The Invincible Barbarian" or "Throne of Fire" if they think these are bad. Compared to those films "Gor's" production values are lavish and the scripts Oscar worthy. The English dubbing of Barberini's Cabot sounds exactly as if it were done by Dan Quayle...and after watching a while he almost morphs into Dan Quayle!

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

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 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.