Gor II (1988)
"Outlaw of Gor" (original title)

The first Gor at least had the music score redeeming it a little even if nothing else worked, it also made the mistake of having on board two talented actors and wasting them both. Here in Outlaw of Gor, aka Gor II, the score is the closest the film gets to having any kind of energy, unfortunately it is almost inappropriately utilised and actually doesn't fit at all.

Outlaw of Gor is a really cheap-looking film, as with the first Gor the photography is constantly shoddy, the sets are drab and the costumes are a mix of the cheapest plastic armours and left-over-fabrics except to even worse effect. The script is incredibly juvenile, in a way that even a child would find insulting hearing it, and has no flow at all, you can actually feel the cornball awkwardness the actors clearly felt delivering it. The film is so thin plot-wise that you'd be forgiven if you thought there wasn't one, it's laboriously paced and doesn't even try to make sense- in fact the duller the film gets the more incomprehensible it gets too. The fight scenes and their choreography are even more artificial than the children's-playground-like ones in the first film, the editing is slapdash in the scenes, the choreography is unenthusiastic sloppiness all over and there's just no fun or tension or even life to them.

The characters have very little personality, just underdeveloped genre clichés really, and Outlaw of Gor has to have one of the most irritating comedy relief sidekicks of all time. To call the direction inept is an understatement and the acting is terrible across the board. This is including Jack Palance, who actually was a great actor who excelled in villain roles but you wouldn't think so here, here is his career worst performance and the only time where he looked bored and embarrassed. Particularly bad in the acting department were Urbano Barberini who once again tries to mask his lack of charisma and limited acting skills with cornball dialogue delivery and acting like a buffoon and it gets annoying, Donna Denton who screams her lines almost the entire time and it gets old quickly and Russell Savadier whose character is useless and irritating in the first place and his performance really grates on the nerves. Oddly enough despite Palance being the best known actor and actually having acting talent Rebecca Ferratti is the least bad, there's more life and expression than there was in her performance in the first film and she does light up the screen with her sexiness.

All in all, one of the worst sequels ever made, making the same major mistakes the first film did to even worse effect and makes more on the way. As extremely weak the first Gor was, it's Citizen Kane compared to this almost irredeemable follow-up. 1/10 Bethany Cox