Outlaw of Gore (1988)

Tarl Cabot (Urbano Barberini) is leading an unhappy life since his return from Gor.  One of his fellow professors, Watney Smith (Russel Savadier), is failing miserably in his efforts to hook up with any woman who will have him.  Though Watney wants to try another bar, Cabot is ready to call it a night.  He offers to drive Watney home first.  While driving, Cabot's ring starts glowing.  The pair find themselves in the midst of a desert on Gor!  While Cabot is thrilled, Watney is baffled and concerned.  Eventually, the pair find their way to Koruba, the place that Cabot freed on his last visit to Gor.  Now, a new danger threatens.  The young queen has conspired with Xeno the Priest (Jack Palance) to usurp the throne and lay the blame on Cabot.  Can Cabot escape Queen Lara's clutches and also rescue his beloved, Talena (Rebecca Ferratti)?

This is worse than the last film.  The fight choreography is pathetic.  The queen's plans are so obvious that no one would fall for them.  Jack Palance, like Oliver Reed before him, is here for the paycheck only.  His villian might have been more impressive if he wasn't constantly thwarted by the brainless queen.  His death is so sudden and badly done that I had to rewind to see what happened.  Rather than some great and heroic warrior, Cabot comes across as a dull-witted fool.  He doesn't win because he outsmarts or outfights the enemy, but because he is the good guy.  Worst of all, everyone is saying 'Cabot' repeatedly and endlessly.  His name is spoken 55 times in the first 10 minutes!  35 times, it was the tediously annoying Watney.  Speaking of Watney, he proves to be even dumber than Cabot.  What college is it that these two are professors?  Yikes, don't enroll there.

Being set in Gor, one expects sexy women wearing next to nothing.  Talena, Queen Lara, and the nameless slave that Cabot rescues are all quite attractive but there isn't a lot of focus on them.  The 'plot' is more important than the eye candy.  Where Talena and Cabot traveled together in much of the previous film, in this one they are separated early and have individual storylines; that really limits Rebecca's screen time.  It's like the filmmakers don't understand the main draw for a Gor film.

Skip this one.

Gor

Gor opens in a college classroom somewhere in New Hampshire. Professor Tarl Cabot is telling his students about his magic ring that science has not yet explained; they think he is a loon. So does anyone watching the movie. Tarl has planned a weekend with his girlfriend/grad student that will involve a remote cabin and some fishing. She dumps him. Even so, Tarl decides to drive in torrential rain to the cabin but crashes his car into a tree.

Tarl awakens in a desert that bears no resemblance to New Hampshire. He sees a village being attacked and watches from behind a rock. The people are relatively primitive, wielding swords and spears. As Tarl is an oaf, he manages to get spotted by some of the attackers and runs – girl-like – away from the horsemen. Then, quite by accident, he manages to kill Sarm's son; Sarm (Oliver Reed) is the lead villain. Tarl is saved by the remaining villagers and taught to fight. He learns that in order to return to New Hampshire, he must recover the home stone that was stolen by Sarm.

Soon, a party assembles. There is Tarl, the other-worlder (he is not the first to come from this mythical place called Earth), Talena the studded-leather bikini wearing babe (played by Rebecca Ferratti, a Playboy Playmate), an old man, a young warrior, and a dwarf (not the bearded kind, just a short guy who thinks he's funny). This motley crew traverses the desert to do battle with Sarm.

The big thing about Gor is that women are often held as slaves. In fact, in some regions, they can only be slaves and it is illegal to have a woman who isn't chained. This woman-as-sex-slave theme has marked the Gor novels as sexist and misogynistic. The movie happily follows along.

It actually comes as a bit of a surprise that Tarl chose to return home at the end. On Earth, he was a loser who got dumped by his average-looking girlfriend. On Gor, he was an accomplished warrior who had Talena desiring him. However, the movie ends with a clear indication of a sequel, even introducing Xenos (Jack Palance).

This is Spaghetti Sword & Sorcery, with mediocre acting, terrible editing, a lousy script, and inexplicable actions by the characters. It is amazing the sequel was made. The only reason to watch this is to see Rebecca Ferratti run around in her lack of clothes and fight a variety of foes between incidents of bondage.

Paul L. Smith has a role that I do not remember.  Also, Arnold Vosloo - who went on to be the Mummy in the Brendan Fraiser franchise - had one of his earliest roles here.