Iron Warrior [Blu-ray] - Action-Packed Fantasy Movie | Perfect for Movie Nights & Collector's Editions

Miles O’Keeffe from the movie Tarzan with Bo Derek is the Warrior in this very bland, none athletic, somewhat action of a movie.Sorry to say, but It’s a SnoozerThis movie is the GREATEST and most GLORIOUS of all the Ator movies!!! And the Ator series is the GREATEST of all the 'sword and sandal' films.Which is to say that it is the stinkiest piece of crap in the movie poop-pile. It is wondrous to see a bad film, like Ator, get turned into a successful series and it is hilarious to watch them get worse and worse, until they got so bad that any MST3K fan MUST OWN THIS MOVIE.Bring popcorn so that you can throw it at the TV while you ridicule: logic errors, continuity errors, PADDING, poor production, worse acting and the lack of a script.Thank youMediocre yet obscureI always worry and think, “What is left? Have I truly exhausted the bounds of cinema? Have I seen all there is that is left to see? Will nothing ever really surprise and delight me ever again?” Then I watched Iron Warrior and this movie is mindblowing.Alfonso Brescia made a bunch of Star Trek-inspired Star Wars ripoffs in the late 70’s, like Cosmos: War Of the Planets, Battle Of the Stars, War Of the Robots and Star Odyssey. Before that, he was known for working in the peblum genre with entries such as The Magnificent Gladiator and The Conquest of Atlantis. And some maniacs out there may know him from his Star Wars clone cover version of Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast — complete with the same actress, Sirpa Lane — called The Beast in Space.Today, though, we’re here to discuss Brescia taking over the reins of Ator from Joe D’Amoto after Ator the Fighting Eagle and Ator 2: The Blade Master. I expected another muddy cave dwelling movie livened up only by nukes and hang gliders. What I received was a movie where a frustrated artist was struggling to break free.This movie goes back to the beginning of Ator’s life, where we discover that his twin brother was taken at a young age. Now, our hero travels to Dragor (really the Isle of Malta) to do battle with a sorceress named Phaedra (Elisabeth Kazaand, who was in the aforementioned The Beast) her unstoppable henchman, the silver skulled, red bandana wearing Trogar (Franco Daddi, who was the stunt coordinator for both Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and The Curse), who is the Iron Master of the Sword.Princess Janna (Savina Gersak, who was in War Bus Commando) and Ator (the returning Miles O’Keefe) join forces and man, Janna’s makeup and hair is insane. She has what I can only describe as a ponytail mohawk and has makeup that wouldn’t be out of place on the Jem and the Holograms cartoon.Imagine, if you will, a low budget sword and sorcery film that has MTV style editing, as well as gusts of wind, constant dolly shots and nausea inducing zooms. It’s less a narrative film as it is a collection of images, sword fights and just plain weirdness. Like Deeva (Iris Peynado, who you may remember as Vinya, the girl who hooks up with Fred Williamson in Warriors of the Wasteland) saying that she created both Ator and Trogar to be tools of justice? This movie completely ignores the two that came before — and the one that follows it — and I am completely alright with all of it!Supposedly, D’Amoto hated this movie. Lots of people hate on it online, too. Well, guess what? They’re wrong. This is everything that I love about movies and proved to me that there is still some cinematic magic left in the world to find.How about this for strange trivia? When they made the Conan the Adventurer series in 1997, Ator’s sword was repainted and used as the Sword of Atlantis!As far as I know, Iron Warrior has NEVER been released on DVD, much less blu ray.It was the straight to video days of the 80's that Iron Warrior so epitomizes. Wooden acting and girls who wanted to be stars (like Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men) that the director (after a few drinks) probably found in the local nightclubs and said, "Hey, honey. Wanta be a star?"The story line follows the basic good vs. evil (brother vs. brother) as Ator fights his twin brother who had been abducted by an evil witch some 18 years prior. I've had better sword fight action with my own brother in the backyard with wooden swords we'd nailed together from scrap wood. At least we bloodied each others knuckles and swore a bit. These guys (mostly Miles O'Keeffe) strike poses and swing their swords around slower than Otis leaving the jail cell in Mayberry. But, they can catch spears better than anyone I've seen.Ator and Princess Jenna are chased all over the Island of Malta to be tormented by the witch since she isn't allowed to kill them until it finally sinks into the sea and they swim to the next available land mass with the all powerful "Chest of the Ages." Yes, it's hokey. Yes, it suffers from a poor script (if there was one). Yes, the girls are only eye candy. But isn't that why we love it?Every so often a movie is sooooooo bad that it almost becomes art. Think of Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Iron Warrior is that bad. Or that good. Try to imagine a Conan the Barbarian clone made with a budget of $30. The "plot" consists of unrelated chase scenes (many, many chases), REALLY bad battle scenes, and (JOY!) gratuitous nudity. The thing is, this movie is so unbelieveably bad that it is unintentionally hilarious. I watched this at 2:00 AM one day and found myself laughing hystericaly. The hairstyles alone are worthy of a chuckle. This movie will NEVER see an academy award, but in spite of everything, it is entertaining. So, 3 stars for the laughs, and 1/2 a star for everything else.I'd give this some grief for being made in the late 80's >_< Well, it's basically a story....about...a warrior...that's protecting a princess called "Jenna" that for some reason manages to get her torso naked everytime someone tries to attack her...someone over the age of ten can figure out the plot and the ending after watching it for about twenty minutes. But as I said, it was made in the 80's so everything that we think would be a cliche today, wasn't back then. Anyway, I gave this a 2 star rating because I love Miles O'Keefe's armor design and the way his hair is set up...great for artistic values. This film dissapointed me and I wondered why I wasted money to rent it...but the setting's nice and the way the characters look (armor design, clothes...) are very artistic. Cheers.Ator il guerriero di ferro (Iron Warrior) is a 1987 Italian sword and sorcery movie and third entry in the Ator series, the only one not directed by the legendary exploitation and erotica director Joe D'Amato (a man of many pseudonyms) but instead directed by Alfonso Brescia (credited as Al Bradley)Joe D'Amato, who denounced this sequel as a cash-in to "Ator l'invincibile", a film which was a direct copy and cash-in of the 1982 John Millus film "Conan the Barbarian", would later return in 1990 to direct the fourth and final entry "Quest for the Mighty Sword" (Troll 3: The Hobgoblin)"Iron Warrior" is often considered the overlooked addition in the series and often criticized for taking itself more serious than Joe D'Amato's more unintentionally campier movies.But for me, the change of tone is welcomed. Alfonso Brescia has a different style and a different vision making the movie a breath of fresh air and stands out in the series.Miles O'Keefe returns as Ator in name only. This would mark his final appearance as the bare chested warrior before being replaced by Eric Allan Kramer.The movie might not be as hilariously campy and entertainingly bad as the previous two entries or the forth film, but it's a unique film in its own right with some beautiful location shots of Malta that sets the mood for a mystical world perfectly. The movie is an interesting blend of b-movie cheese and arthouse creativity. The story is paper thin but is made up for it in the visuals.One scene in particular features Ator standing in front of a mirror as he practices with a sword, flexing his muscles, a poignant moment that orchestrates the often narcissistic vanity of heroes. There's also a catch, the scene has a second layer, with Ator training in his symmetrical reflection and the ball promptly shattering it, it creates a foreboding sense of the hero being warned that his twin brother Trogar, seduced by the dark side to be become the titular Iron Warrior, has returned.Despite it's more artistic tone, the movie contains many characteristics to Italian exploitation films, the dubbing, the over the top acting, and most of all, the blatant copying of more bigger known Hollywood movies. "2019: After the Fall of New York" borrowed from "John Carpenter's Escape from New York", "Hell of the Living Dead" borrowed from "Dawn of the Dead"in the case of "Iron Warrior", it's a mix of "Masters of the Universe" and for a complete genre change "Superman II".A noteworthy mention is the soundtrack, to many sci-fi fans they will no doubt recognize it as Jerry Goldsmith's theme to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", later reused for the intro for "Star Trek: The Next Generation", once again following the movie's trend of being influenced by science fiction as opposed to traditional sword and sorcery.So sit back, sharpen your swords and embark on a mythical journey to the realm of Dragor for the unconventional Ator and fantasy film, "Iron Warrior"