Son of Zorro (1973)

Original title: Il Figlio di Zorro

Zorro adventure. Italy/Spain. Starring Robert Widmark, William Berger, Fernando Sancho & Elisa Ramírez. Directed by Gianfranco Baldanello.

Filmex (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Very entertaining Zorro flick, one of the best of the genre! 4/5

The Norman Swordsman (1972)

Original title: La Spada Normanna

Sword. Italy/Spain/France. Starring Mark Damon & Krista Nell. Directed by Roberto Mauri.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Widescreen.

Tarzan in King Salomon's Mines (1973)

Original title: Tarzán en las minas del rey Salomón

Jungle adventure. Spain. Starring David Carpenter & Paul Naschy. Directed by José Luis Merino.

Videofilm AB (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

As far as euro-Tarzan ripp offs are conserned, this is the absolute bottom-of-the-barrell! But it's not without a certain Grade Z-charm. Z-Tarzan David Carpenter acts and looks brain-damaged (not surprised he never acted again) and spanish horror legend Paul Naschy plays the villian. 2/5

Här Kommer Bärsärkarna (1966)

Adventure/Comedy. Sweden/Denmark/Yugoslavia. Starring Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt, Dirch Passer, Åke Söderblom & Loredana Nusciak. Directed by Arne Mattsson.

Arena (Sweden). Swedish language. Widescreen.

Beyond awful slapstick viking "comedy". Mattson at his worst. 1/5

Get Mean (1976)

Western /Adventure/Peplum (!!). Italy. Starring Tony Anthony, Raf Baldassarre, Diana Lorys & Lloyd Battista. Directed by Ferdinando Baldi.

VCL (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Mindboggling "western". You could write an essay about how dumb this film is but let me just conclude that the gunman Tony Anthony is hired to protect the princess of Spain (!) from vikings (!!) and a moorish warlord (!!!) with a Caligula complex and his hunchbacked sidekick! I wonder what they were smoking when they wrote this (admittedly fun) film? 3/5

Warlords of Atlantis (1978)

Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Adventure. UK. Starring Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore, Cyd Charisse, Shane Rimmer & John Ratzenberger. Directed by Kevin Connor.

Thorn-Emi (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

Entertaining brittish fantasy flick. 3/5

Rather Kiss a Cobra (1986)

Original title: Meglio Baciare un Cobra

Indiana Jones-copy. Italy. Starring Andy J. Forest, Milly D'Abbraccio & Paul Muller. Directed by Massimo Pirri.

Tower Vison/Scanbox (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Even though it's supposed to be a Indy-rippoff this film plays like a dirty prison movie for the most part. Passable entertainment. 2/5

King Solomon's Treasure (1977)

Adventure. UK/Canada. Starring David McCallum, Patrick Macnee, Britt Ekland, Véronique Béliveau & John Colicos. Directed by Alvin Rakoff.

Master Video (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

Hundra (1983)

Fantasy/Amazons. Spain/USA. Starring Laurene Landon, Cihangir Gaffari, María Casal & Luis Lorenzo. Directed by Matt Cimber.

Thorn-Emi (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

Very cool and entertaining entry in the hot-amazon-warrior-kicking-male-butt genre, one of my sword and sorcery favorites. Another thing I liked: the film's "feminist message" feels a little less half-assed and more from the heart than in similiar b-films of the era, say something like Cirio H. Santiago's The Sisterhood or Corman's Barbarian Queen. 4/5

Hrafninn Flýgur (1984)

a.k.a Revenge of the Barbarians

Vikings/Adventure. Iceland. Starring Egill Ólafsson, Edda Björgvinsdóttir, Flosi Ólafsson, Gotti Sigurdarson & Helgi Skúlason. Directed by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson.

Thorn-Emi (Sweden). Icelandic language with swedish subtitles. Fullscreen.

It must be 15 years since I saw this one... I remember it as quite good but really need to revisit it.

Hunters of the Golden Cobra (1982)

Original title: I Acciatori del Cobra D'oro

Indiana Jones-rippoff. Italy. Starring David Warbeck, Alan Collins, John Steiner & Almanta Suska. Directed by Antonio Margheriti.

Hemvideo Film (Sweden). English dubbed. Widescreen.

Fun, action-packed Indiana Jones-clone by Margheriti. 3/5

Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983)

Fantasy. UK. Starring Richard Hatch, John Saxon, Kay Lenz, Peter O'Farrell & Kenneth Hendel. Directed by Terry Marcel.

IP (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

Marcel, the man behind Hawk the Slayer obviously picked up a thing or two since his first stab at directing because this is a much professional looking and entertaining film. Good fun. 3/5

Hawk the Slayer (1980)

Fantasy. UK. Starring John Terry, Jack Palance & William Morgan Sheppard. Directed by Terry Marcel.

Sonet Video (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

This cheap brittish sword and sorcery epic could have used better actors (most actors sleepwalk through their roles and only veteran actor Palance delivers fun over-the-top performance as the evil Voltan) and perhaps a little more exiting sets than a brittish pineforest. Still a reasonably entertaining little film that does the best it can with it's meagre resources - not the turkey it has often been painted as. Fans of the genre might want to check it out. 2/5

The Barbarians (1987)

Fantasy. Italy/USA. Starring Peter Paul, David Paul, Richard Lynch, Eva La Rue & Michael Berryman. Directed by Ruggero Deodato.

Tower Vision/Scanbox (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

Without the darling bodybuilder twins Peter and David Paul (the barbarian brothers!) this movie would have been pure shit, but since they're in most scenes and steals all of them, I really like it! Still, hardly one of Deodato's most inspired moments as a director. 3/5

The Throne of Fire (1983)

Original title: Il Trono di Fuoco

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Peter McCoy, Sabrina Siani, Harrison Muller Jr. & Pietro Ceccarelli. Directed by Franco Prosperi.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Another cheap sword and sorcery flick by Prosperi with the usual actors, but at least it's better than the slow-mo yawn The Invicible Barbarian. A slow-moving and very low budget film with a synth score that kind of works if you like the genre and watch it alone late at night. But of course it's not "good". 2/5

The Sword of the Barbarians (1982)

Original title: Sangraal, La Spada di Fuoco

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Peter McCoy, Sabrina Siani & Hal Yamanouchi. Directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen. Cut!

One of the best of the italian low budget Conan-ripp offs (itself a ripp off of the italian peplas of the 1960s). A violent and very entertaining slice of machismo/lunacy! 4/5

Thor the Conqueror (1983)

Original title: Thor il Conquistatore

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Conrad Nichols, Malisa Longo, Maria Romano, Raf Baldassarre & Christopher Holm. Directed by Tonino Ricci.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

The dumbest, cheapest, crappiest, most moronic sword and sorcery flick imaginable. It's not without a certain Grade Z appeal though. Who could resist lines like "the woman is weak, Thor - take her!" (it's one of the most unashamedly sexist - even pro-rape- films in history and all the funnier for it) or "centuries from now this will be called a Horse". This swedish video release states that "Leading man Conrad Nichols has a disarming charm behind his muscles" on the cover, possibly the biggest lie in video cover history. While one of the worst films on this blog, Thor is not without its entertainment value and should be watched at least once. 2/5

Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983)

Original title: Il Mondo di Yor

Fantasy/Sci-fi. Italy/Turkey. Starring Reb Brown, Corinne Clery, Luciano Pigozzi, Carole André & John Steiner. Directed by Antonio Margheriti.

Vestron Video (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Wonderful slice of hokum that starts off as a stoneage fantasy flick and turns into a Star Wars/Mad Max-copy in the last 30 minutes. I love, love, LOVE Yor! It was shot in Turkey and was originally released as a TV mini-series in Italy and edited down to feature lenght for the international video release. I also have a DVD-R of the TV-series (in italian with no subs). 4/5

Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982)

Original title: Ator L'invincibile

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Miles O'Keeffe, Sabrina Siani, Edmund Purdom, Dakar, Laura Gemser & Ritza Brown. Directed by Joe D'Amato.

Thorn-Emi (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Cheezy low budget sword and sorcery flick by shrewd pornographer/filmmaker D'Amato. I used to loath this film but after repeated viewing it's trash appeal have started to grown on me. It's a fun watch when in the mood for a cheezy b-flick. 3/5

The Scalawag Bunch (1972)

Original title: L'arciere di Sherwood

Robin Hood. Italy/Spain/France. Starring Giuliano Gemma, Mark Damon, Silvia Dionisio, Helga Liné, Mario Adorf, Daniele Dublino, Lars Bloch & Pierre Cressoy. Directed by Giorgio Ferroni.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Entertaining comic (non-slapstick, thankfully!) Robin Hood flick with a good cast and a likeable Gemma as Robin. 3/5