"Thor the Mighty" offers two muscle gods for the price of one....but that price is a very cheap, very boring potboiler (nearly all the action takes place inside some caves). Twelve-pack-abs Joe Robinson looks like he might defeat even Steve Reeves in a fight; massively built Harry Baird could have been the first black action hero on the screen, and in some ways he was, but he is largely relegated to the role of the comic-relief sidekick here. The most pleasant surprise of the film comes when the blonde heroine (Thea Fleming) takes charge with her sword at the end. * out of 4.
5 Reviews
Wow, Thor must work out on a fairly regular basis
currax26 July 2000
The copy I saw was called Tör, and the illustration on the box was far more exciting than anything in the movie. The story is about these bad people oppressing these innocent villagers and how Taur and his cowardly (but equally muscle-bound) companion go about liberating them. This movie is just horribly dull and mostly devoid of even unintentional humor. The fights consist of Taur knocking away the soldiers' weapons and then quickly dispatching them with a simple wrestling move. There really aren't any swords or stabbing or even blood. Who knows, maybe you'll just love it.
wow 8 votes
Boogenhagen7729 April 2004
saw this movie 2 nights ago. AMAZINGly sucky. damn. DAMN This movie makes the deathstalker movies look good by comparison. This is instantly going into my 'worst movies of all time' file.
avoid at all costs unless you have a free movie coupon & a desire to be bored to tears. waste of time. The lame fights & 3 stooges stuff was astoundingly terrible.
crap-stick barbarian/tarzan garbage. your average bugs bunny cartoon has WAY more entertainment value. YUCK. BARF ICK. GAG! the budget was about 5 lires. they milked the cave location. the white capes & plastic gold rock were so poor its sad. if you like this, your sense of taste is really warped.
avoid at all costs unless you have a free movie coupon & a desire to be bored to tears. waste of time. The lame fights & 3 stooges stuff was astoundingly terrible.
crap-stick barbarian/tarzan garbage. your average bugs bunny cartoon has WAY more entertainment value. YUCK. BARF ICK. GAG! the budget was about 5 lires. they milked the cave location. the white capes & plastic gold rock were so poor its sad. if you like this, your sense of taste is really warped.
A campy gem of sword and sandal cinema
Leofwine_draca7 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Well, you don't get more charmingly dumb than TAUR THE MIGHTY, a hugely amusing little adventure yarn which provides plenty of belly laughs along the way - providing you're in the right silly mood. The storyline can be summed up with the phrase "Taur and his sidekick fight bad guys and win" but there's plenty of strange incident and bizarre attempts at humour to enjoy. Indeed I was half inclined to class this as a "comedy" due to the steady flow of bad jokes and silly humour which pervades much of the movie - most of it coming from Taur's black sidekick, a cowardly muscleman played by Harry Baird. The racism of the times is prevalent in his stereotyping as a dumb, cowardly man who runs from the action and whose teeth chatter loudly when he's scared.
Beginning with an attack by men wearing animal masks and ending with an unexplained volcano eruption, TAUR THE MIGHTY doesn't make much sense but that doesn't stop it being fun. The lack of budget doesn't stop these guys - oh no. Instead they try even harder to create an action-packed epic, as judged by numerous scenes of Taur battling armed guards and winning and a hilarious rip-off of a scene in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS which sees Taur straining to reign in not two but TWELVE horses as they threaten to rip his arms from his sockets! Luckily the ropes snap to spare him the misery of losing his limbs.
Originally conceived as a Tarzan flick, unfortunately the Italian producers forgot to actually get the rights and found themselves being hassled by the Burroughs estate - so, instead of coughing up, they simply re-dubbed the dialogue and called their character Taur instead. No re-filming was necessary! Some obscure Yugoslavian grottoes were the main choice for location filming which, along with some lush green countryside, gives the movie a pleasing visual tone. Joe Robinson's lovable meat head is a highly amusing hero figure to watch, his non-acting reaching new lows whilst at the same time his camp status going through the roof. You've gotta love the ending which sees him walk off arm in arm with Baird - perhaps closer than any two friends of the same sex should ever be.
The incidental pleasures are too numerous to mention, but I'll list what I can remember. For starters, the evil tribe in this film are all dressed in weird, brightly coloured costumes which seem in part to have been influenced by the Egyptians! They also have some huge bizarre machinery in the base of the mountain they use for gold-mining although I'm not sure what it's used for. You've got vine-swinging, silly unconvincing disguises, comedy music, and a gladiator fight between two blindfolded women! (this was to serve as the basis for the movie's sequel, WOMEN GLADIATORS, which is even cheesier and more amusing) In another attempt to go "one better" than Steve Reeves, instead of pushing just a rock on to the chief baddie at the end of the film, Taur instead darned near rips off the peak of a mountain to lob at his enemy - wait until you see the size of this thing!
Chuckle in amusement as Taur - on a conveyor belt into a flame pit - is repeatedly put into danger as his dumb sidekick plays with the control lever. Stare in amazement at the voluptuous Bella Cortez, gracing yet another cheapo peplum yarn with her presence. Watch in amazement as Taur single-handedly and bloodlessly kills another dozen guards with little or no effort on his part at all. Although it fails on all accounts as an exciting action flick, TAUR THE MIGHTY offers tons of cheesy appeal and camp value and is a must for lovers of the obscure and downright strange.
Beginning with an attack by men wearing animal masks and ending with an unexplained volcano eruption, TAUR THE MIGHTY doesn't make much sense but that doesn't stop it being fun. The lack of budget doesn't stop these guys - oh no. Instead they try even harder to create an action-packed epic, as judged by numerous scenes of Taur battling armed guards and winning and a hilarious rip-off of a scene in GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS which sees Taur straining to reign in not two but TWELVE horses as they threaten to rip his arms from his sockets! Luckily the ropes snap to spare him the misery of losing his limbs.
Originally conceived as a Tarzan flick, unfortunately the Italian producers forgot to actually get the rights and found themselves being hassled by the Burroughs estate - so, instead of coughing up, they simply re-dubbed the dialogue and called their character Taur instead. No re-filming was necessary! Some obscure Yugoslavian grottoes were the main choice for location filming which, along with some lush green countryside, gives the movie a pleasing visual tone. Joe Robinson's lovable meat head is a highly amusing hero figure to watch, his non-acting reaching new lows whilst at the same time his camp status going through the roof. You've gotta love the ending which sees him walk off arm in arm with Baird - perhaps closer than any two friends of the same sex should ever be.
The incidental pleasures are too numerous to mention, but I'll list what I can remember. For starters, the evil tribe in this film are all dressed in weird, brightly coloured costumes which seem in part to have been influenced by the Egyptians! They also have some huge bizarre machinery in the base of the mountain they use for gold-mining although I'm not sure what it's used for. You've got vine-swinging, silly unconvincing disguises, comedy music, and a gladiator fight between two blindfolded women! (this was to serve as the basis for the movie's sequel, WOMEN GLADIATORS, which is even cheesier and more amusing) In another attempt to go "one better" than Steve Reeves, instead of pushing just a rock on to the chief baddie at the end of the film, Taur instead darned near rips off the peak of a mountain to lob at his enemy - wait until you see the size of this thing!
Chuckle in amusement as Taur - on a conveyor belt into a flame pit - is repeatedly put into danger as his dumb sidekick plays with the control lever. Stare in amazement at the voluptuous Bella Cortez, gracing yet another cheapo peplum yarn with her presence. Watch in amazement as Taur single-handedly and bloodlessly kills another dozen guards with little or no effort on his part at all. Although it fails on all accounts as an exciting action flick, TAUR THE MIGHTY offers tons of cheesy appeal and camp value and is a must for lovers of the obscure and downright strange.
Thank God Tarzan's legend was spared!
rickjolo4 December 2002
Taur was originally supposed to be a Tarzan film, but was renamed after a copyright infringement suit was threatened! Closer observation reveals more of a similarity to the Ape Man than any Norse legend I am familiar with. A cheap and shameful attempt to cash in on the '60's muscleman craze.
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