A Brilliant Conflict

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

This gloriously goofy cheese ball muscleman movie stars beefcake actor Reb Brown (star of those 'Captain America' TV movies of the 1970s) as the title character. Yor is a lone warrior wandering a prehistoric world, who falls in with young Ka-laa (super sexy Corinne Clery of "Moonraker") and her guardian Pag (Luciano Pigozzi, a.k.a. Alan Collins, utility player in many Italian films). He will ultimately go on a quest to learn his true identity, not really knowing the meaning of the medallion he wears around his neck. The three of them will meet other primitive peoples, fight dinosaurs, and end up battling a Darth Vader-like villain dubbed Overlord (John Steiner, another veteran of Italian exploitation cinema).Yor in for a good time with this lively dose of nutty nonsense. It gets off to a grand start with that irresistible, hilarious theme song. The Leonard Maltin review describes it as "humorously tacky", and that it makes it something to treasure. The clunkiness of the special effects merely adds to the good vibes, as well as the expected (and priceless) antiquated English spoken by many of the characters. Generous on-location shooting in Turkey gives it some solid atmosphere and visuals, and pacing is more than adequate. It rarely passes up a chance to amuse you, with little let up and a tight running time of just under an hour and a half. But it isn't until the final half hour, when "future" and past meet up, that it becomes truly something special. It's just too delightful to see an old-style fantasy type hero in a science-fiction setting, complete with robotic minions working for Overlord.Browns' performance is definitely acceptable for this sort of fare: he's amiable, and physical, if not possessing quite the same physique as, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger from this period. There's no shortage of truly gorgeous women in skimpy outfits: Clery, Carole Andre as Ena, Ayshe Gul as Roa, and Claudia Rocchi as Tarita. Steiner and Aytekin Akkaya as Ukan are wonderfully hammy villains.One of the best bits occurs when Yor discovers a radio and smashes it on the rocks, dismissing it as a "damn talking box".This is one of the best bad movies that this viewer has seen in a while.Screenplay by Robert D. Bailey and director Antonio Margheriti, based on a graphic novel by Juan Zanotto and Ray Collins.Eight out of 10.

Executive Summary: A He-Man wannabe (complete with furry underwear and pageboy haircut) dukes it out with rubber dinosaurs, Morlocks, and androids with Darth Vader helmets, while 80's New-Wave rock plays in the background.Favorite Scene: Our Hero hang-glides on an unconscious pterydon into a Morlock/Neanderthal/goon and then does the Captain Kirk double-leg judo kick to chase him away from the love interest.Ratings Quandary: This film, like many B-movies, is extremely difficult for me to rate on a 1-10 scale. In terms of my personal enjoyment, 8/10. In terms of the production / acting quality, probably about a 4. Split the difference and call it a solid six.Bottom Line: A laugh-out-loud cheese-fest. Watch it for a bad movie night with a roomful of riffers and give it the MST3K treatment it so richly deserves.

Yor (Brown) is a warrior from a prehistoric (?) time who seems to be the first person to invent ab crunches. At first he is content to go about his day fighting dinosaurs, fighting ape-like creatures with purple skin, and spending quality time with Ka-Laa (Clery) and the elder Pag (Pigozzi). But when a futuristic device appears that looks like a modern-day GPS, Yor begins to question his entire existence. Before you can say "oiled-up dude in a loincloth", Yor and his friends are transported to some sort of Star Wars-like future world, complete with an Emperor (Steiner), who is called "Overlord", and Stormtrooper-esque baddies with masks reminiscent of Darth Vader. Surely Yor is confused, but he must protect his allies and fight the baddies, all while trying to discover the secret to his origins. Can he do it? Yor is a video store classic that anyone with a sense of nostalgia for that place and time (the 80's, and video stores) will surely appreciate. In that classically Italian way, the movie is sort of a melange of the popular things of the time, such as the Star Wars series and He-Man. Throw in a little The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) and maybe a little Caveman (1981), put in a blender with some alcohol, and there you have it. While I don't know this for sure, I would guess that this isn't director Margheriti's favorite from his own work (it was also based on some graphic novels of the time) - but it's probably the Margheriti most American viewers have seen, since it was distributed widely to stores by Columbia Home Video. Perhaps it opened the door to fans seeking his other output.The costumes are certainly a sight to behold - in the first half of the movie, the raggedy cavemen duds make you think at any moment one of the characters is going to say "It's...!" and an episode of Monty Python will begin. Once we get to the futuristic section later, there's even more greatness and creativity. Why is it in the future, breastplates are so popular? That nagging question aside, we get some nice laser action (because lasers were gigantic in the 80's, never mind Laser Tag and Photon, just ask Judas Priest) - and the laser guns look more like car accessories, but who are we to say what laser guns will look like in the future? Anyone who reads this site knows that we are big Reb Brown fans, and the fact that here he teams up with the great Antonio Margheriti behind the camera is truly a dream team. Brown plays the aforementioned oiled-up dude in a loincloth (OUDIAL for those on the go) with typical aplomb. Though this was so early in his career, he had yet to fully perfect his trademark scream. But he has amazing hair (especially for a prehistoric guy) and looks oddly like James Van Der Beek. Was this VHS tape ever put in the horror section of any video store? Speaking of which...this movie does introduce the public to "triceratops gore" which no doubt we've all been clamoring for.There is some amazing music on the soundtrack. It's not said who did the actual songs in the end credits. We know the music was by the great DeAngelis brothers, along with John Scott, but did they do the Queen-like tunes as well? It's never said what those songs are. But no doubt they were recorded to hop on the bandwagon of yet another popular movie of the day, Flash Gordon (1980).Anyone who doesn't like this movie is just too logical. Turn off the logical part of your brain and just go with the flow. If you do, Yor gonna love it.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

I finally managed to get through the film with the aid of modern technology i.e. a dvr that plays back at 300x.What I enjoy the most about the database are the comments posted.Some of the writers should be teaching creative English at the university level although I secretly suspect that all the people who aced those courses didn't get jobs at the New York Times or become mainstream film critics and I know that IMDb reviewers have no reason to distort the truth or are getting paid off.Sometimes the only redeeming social aspect of some of these films are the comments made by the Silent Majority (was that Jerry Falwell or Spiro Agnew who coined that term ? or was it niggling naybobs of negativism ?) who have suffered through really awful films and are willing to share their pain with us