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Strong and Moving!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

THE WARRIOR AND THE SORCERESS is a rubbishy little sword and sorcery movie released in the wake of CONAN THE BARBARIAN. From the first scene you can see it looks cheap and amateurish and quite depressing to watch. It was shot in some rocky Argentinian locations and of a no-name cast the only familiar face is David Carradine, miscast as the sword-fielding hero. He gets involved in a plot "borrowed" from YOJIMBO but everything is drawn out in the extreme and there's very little action either; CONAN this ain't. The director's emphasis is on including as much topless female nudity as possible but that's no way to sustain a film, although there's one memorable gag involving a four-breasted woman which brought to mind TOTAL RECALL.

However, that's not to say that this routine sword 'n' sandal fantasy adventure doesn't have a brilliant touch or two. As has been said numerous times before, it's essentially another reworking of the time-honoured premise of "Yojimbo", as a mythical lone warrior, Kain (David Carradine) does his best to manipulate two warring factions in a small isolated community who each want control of the only water well. One of them is led by Zeg (the amusingly cast Luke Askew), the other by Bal Caz (Guillermo Marin). The sorceress of the title is Naja, played by the super sexy Maria Socas, who plays her role almost completely topless, certain to guarantee enthusiastic approval by trash fans everywhere. The movie really is rather thinly written (by director John Broderick and William Stout, the latter being an artist & production designer who's worked on genre efforts like "Conan the Barbarian" and "The Return of the Living Dead"), and it may leave one caring little about characters or what happens to them. Carradine is sometimes a hoot, but he often looks here like he can't wait to cash his paycheck. So it's up to the supporting players to try to give this thing a shot in the arm. Askew, Marin, and Armando Capo as the inhuman Burgo the Slaver are all reasonably entertaining antagonists. Production design, location shooting, and costumes are effective, but the action runs hot and cold; the sword fights aren't the most exciting one will ever see. R. Christopher Biggs supplies the makeup effects on the non-human characters as well as one funky little lizard thing. The music is credited to Luis Maria Serra, but any fan of previous Roger Corman productions is sure to recognize certain cues from the James Horner score for "Humanoids from the Deep". The one thing that really makes "The Warrior and the Sorceress" worthwhile is fairly brief, but impressive: the makeup effects on a luscious exotic dancer (played by Cecilia Narova) who happens to have four breasts, outdoing the memorable three breasted hooker from "Total Recall". Overall this is pretty forgettable once it's over, but it provides adequate enough entertainment for a trim 82 minute running time. Undemanding fans of sleazy low budget fantasy films should be satisfied. Six out of 10.

Whenever I get into a discussion with someone about the worst movie ever, this turkey comes to mind. Every woman in this movie is nude but it's beyond gratuitous...there's no point. This isn't a feminist diatribe...I live with an artist who does figure work. It is the outcry of an affronted sensibility. This movie simply fails in everything that makes a movie worth seeing. The acting is atrocious, the story is nonexistent, the sets are cheesy and the plot convoluted and uninteresting.David Carradine should be ashamed of himself for giving this offal an excuse for being made. It's been 15 years since I saw this movie yet it lingers in my mind like the taste of spoiled milk glibly drunk in the middle of the night right out of the carton. If there were a negative score, I would have marked it lower.

David Carradine can be entertaining if he has any chance at all, and this film provides him with the opportunity. He plays the disillusioned, violent, seemingly corrupt "Dark Warrior" to the hilt.Maria Socas plays the entire film nearly naked. This has surely limited its "exposure" to the general media, including of course television. However, her natural state enhances the visual imagery of the film and she seems almost sacred in her devotion to her office of priestess. What a state we are in, when we so readily accept tremendous, gory violence in film, yet eschew nudity as something taboo and dirty.This is, of course, a "cheapie B movie", but it isn't so badly done. I find it compelling, entertaining escapism. Its a good "guy" film, so just lean back and imagine.