YOR: The Hunter From the Future

I saw this when I was a kid and because it was part of that 80's craptastic fantasy revival its always been in the back of my head to see it again and the other night, Amazon Prime obliged me.

Opening with a theme song about Yor, that sounds like it was a rejected Yes track, I was sure that they chose a place with the most phallic looking rocks possible. Took me awhile to find a screen shot online, that still doesn't do it disturbing justice.

Yor played by Reb Brown (70's Captain America, Space Mutiny-which I just watched via Mystery Science Theater 3000) oh and he was Blaster, in Uncommon Valor - a movie I actually like.

Anyhow he shows up just in time to save the damsel in distress and her dad? from an enraged triceratops. After he kills it with a few good whacks in the head with his ax, he tells them to help him with the best cuts of meat. All in a days work for our hero.

Later the bad caveman attack and take the girl, so Yor and her dad go after them. Rather conveniently Yor kills a bat/pteranadon some winged beastie I never got a good look at and he hang glides into the bad cavemen's open cavern. Unbelievable as that was it is still better than Ator's similar maneuver in Cave Dwellers. Then he has to run with the girl - I'm spacing her name but she was a Bond girl in Moonraker (so she has done better movies)  and they cross a defile
and then run up the cavern past the death god altar and LO! There is a dam at the top of the cavern so that Yor can break it down and flood out the pursuing baddies. Pretty damn convenient.

Later he gets word that there is a goddess who has a similar medallion to his, so he goes in search of her to learn who he is.
Of course its not that hard to find said blonde wench and she tells him the little that she knows before she lets him and the girl and her dad know they are to be sacrificed. And then they escape, not much to go on here it is a sad movie.

Moving along they go to a beach and rescue some peaceful villagers there from some monster then discover that the people had to deal with some kind of futuristic attack and left behind technology nobody understands and say it comes from some kinda forbidden island and so of course Yor is going there.

So moving along, they go to the island, get attacked by some black wannabe Darth Vader bots, find out a guy named the Overlord is behind it and that he = Yor now, is actually one of these futuristic peoples and that his father took him and crash landed in the barbaric wastes. So after a brief incarceration and struggle against the Overlord, Yor triumphs and flies away and the movie ends on the question of will Yor be able to save the remaining members of humanity from destroying themselves through nuclear annihilation?

In hindsight, my memory of watching it on video with my Dad when I was maybe 10 made it a better movie than it really was, but whadaya do? Also, its funny how most of these movie posters make for better entertainment than the actual movie, the story you think you will see always tops what yu get with these = Deathstalker, Barbarian Queen etc etc.

I also watched Fire and Ice with my boys recently and they loved it.

I thought it had its moments but sure wasn't profound by any stretch, I can only hope the upcoming live action one is a little better. I still have hope for S&S cinema.

Tree City Comic Con Recap

So the Space Balrog's and I were at Tree City Comic Con in Boise Idaho - Boise being the adjusted french name for LeBois = River of Tree's. We had a good time! I sold the most books out of all of us on Friday and the least on Saturday - go figure. Apparently Idahoan's wanted more horror on Friday = Weird Tales of Horror and Space Eldritch, and more fantasy on Saturday.



Here is a shot that Jason King took of me when for about 5 seconds I thought our panel had been cancelled and I was shouting "CON!" as in "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" until James Wymore said we were still on - I had no idea that Jason was capturing the moment = priceless.



There were a fair amount of celebs at the con considering it was pretty small - just a few thousand. Here is me with Angie Everhart. I put my foot in my mouth telling her I loved her as Red Sonja (Thinking she portrayed Red in the Conan the Adventurer TV show) WRONG! The pic was taken just before I said that and she visibly cooled as I said it with a sharp, "I was never Red Sonja!"

I did get to mingle with a few other cool celebs - sorry no pictures - I went to the VIP Green Room quite a bit for food and drink - oddly enough security never ever stopped me - I always just walked in like I owned the place while my fellow Balrogs were always turned away along with anyone else who wasn't a star. I got to speak to Nichelle Nicols - Uhura for a quick brunch on Saturday, and John Rhys Davies just as he arrived on Friday very cool cuz he talked to me first! He came in and exclaimed loud like Sallah, "I see one!" and we toasted each other. I never asked what he meant by that - was too thrilled that he was talking.

Breakfast at the hotel Saturday morning was surreal as most of the patroons were stars and support staff so I was a having breakfast with a third of the cast for The Addams Family- Lurch and Cousin It and Wednesday, Uhura, Mark Sheperd, Monster Quest's Dr. Meldrum (I did get a Bigfoot cast), Joanie Brooks - who you may remember was on the cover of the first issue of Utah Geek Magazine that I have a serial action fantasy story in, among others.

At one point I joked that a guy was cosplaying as fellow Balrog Dave Butler - he was wearing the same jeans, white shirt and black blazer, we asked the guy to come and talk to us and it turned out he was the director of the whole Con! So we're making friends with shakers!

Here are a few of the more interesting cosplayers I saw.

Two of America's greatest heroes together again, Batman and Ben Franklin

Tim

Sara Butler, hiding and James Wymore and Jason King

Two cool cats that I don't know what they're from.

A Daft Punk Jedi

And the most bizarre thing was set up right kiddie corner from our booth - the pole dancing Wonder Woman!

Guess what I did when she left her pole unattended.

Just a good time overall!

Strange Sights of the Week

Movie-ing Perceptions

I like what I like and I'm sure you do too, whats funny is when you are so sure you won't like something but you do anyway and vice versa.

I was so sure I was going to love Valhalla Rising with Mads Mikkelsen. Mads is an awesome actor-he was brilliant as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale and equally wonderful as Tristram in King Arthur (I liked it though I never had the impression anyone else did) and he was my favorite character Draco in the new Clash of the Titans.

Here's what I know going in- Valhalla Rising is about a strange somewhat supernatural Viking fighter named One-Eye (Odin perhaps?) I could also tell that somewhere along the tripped out journey of the movie the characters who think they are going to hell end up in North America.

I love this-I wish so bad someone could do Vikings and Indians right - (Cuz we all know Pathfinder did not) I read online that Valhalla Rising was weird and arty, I can deal with all that, I love a lot of foreign strange arty films that you have to think about etc etc.

SO...I thought by all rights, I would love Valhalla Rising. But no. It has to be one of the dullest, what the hell is going on and why should I care movies I have bothered to watch in years. I literally fell asleep-then I rewound to see if I missed something and...NO I didn't.

Right when I thought it might redeem itself at the end, it tanked...hard. Now reading the premise above I can imagine there might be some of you who think, "Oh that's sounds like a good premise, it can't be as bad as all that can it?"

Yes, it is that dull.

And now on the other end of the hammer, I really didn't expect much out of Wrath of the Titans. I find the lead actor Sam Worthington hardly qualifies as an actor, his acting is fencepost worthy. Avatar made me want to gag-but I also thought it was a stupid, unoriginal storyline, "Unobtainium"=Uncreative. With Terminator Salvation I almost bought his performance because he was supposed to be a damn robot! And Clash of the Titans? Let me just say now I hate reluctant hero's who are forced to react to everything instead of acting-its just a lame storytelling device in my arrogant opinion.

So I went into Wrath of the Titans without much in the way expectations and guess what? I liked it. It wasn't mind blowing, it wasn't the best film I've ever seen, but it was enjoyable for what it is. Granted, I still don't like his reluctant hero shtick - its still there and I didn't like the shaky camera to make me feel like I'm really there style that seems so prevalent these days but it is a fun movie. Predictable? Sure. But for a serious Sword  & Sorcery fan, it was a good movie.

I am sure I'll see it again eventually with my kids because that magic that thrill of fantasy is infectious. I look forward to their being excited over the cyclops and all the other (underutilized) monsters.

I had better add as an afterthought-just like the first, the supporting characters are where the humanity, characterization and fun are-some leads just cannot lead.

Strange Sights of the Week

 This one  from my brothers, might be my favorite Christmas gift-a rare photograph of Sean Connery signed by Daniel Craig.