There was a time during the eighties when some Italian filmmakers with a lot of bravado and zero talent thought they could actually make movies, and some other people with a lot of money and zero taste actually gave them the opportunity. They probably didn't please many movie fans at the time, but a select group of cult fans today will be ever grateful.
We watched this movie on an appropriately titled "Night of Distaste", which had previously featured questionable classics such as 'Cannibal Holocaust' and 'Megashark vs. Giant Octopus'. 'Gunan' obviously tried to score in the wake of the success of 'Conan the Barbarian'. Thank God the makers had no idea what they were doing, because this was easily the best worst movie of the evening. Even 'Troll 2' seems wonderfully inspired compared to this hilarious attempt to make an epic.
It wasn't for lack of trying, though. This hilariously bad movie starts with a prologue that tries to sell the idea that millions of years of cosmic powers and evolution on Earth have been a prelude to the battle between good and evil, that is to be settled by some guys in animal skins. Wow. Ambition is one thing this movie can't be denied. They even included some stop-motion dinosaurs that must have been borrowed from a better movie (or one with an actual budget).
The action scenes are pretty unconvincing. The sword fight scenes are probably rehearsal footage. However, probably for artistic reasons, almost one third of the movie is shot in super slow-motion (or they simply had a hard time filling the running time so they chose to stretch it a bit). At one point we started to get slightly annoyed by this, and someone cranked up the movie's speed to 130%. It didn't help much. I am not kidding: we upped it to 150%, and even then the movie was still slow as hell. But this was compensated for by a complete lack of convincibility (if that is a real word): there was a shot where a fake sword was clearly bouncing off someone's back, which was still perfectly visible even at 1,5 times the speed.
From what we could tell, the movie is about two guys, destined to defeat evil, who have been raised by a tribe of women. The females make 'subtle' sexual advances all the time, but the guys don't seem to be interested at all. But don't be afraid: the only girl they are willing to fight for is captured by a hostile tribe, and stripped from her clothes for no apparent reason other than that it gives the makers a reason to film her nude while running in slow-motion. Can't have good cult without gratuitous nudity, now can we?
All in all, we had no idea what to expect but we definitely had a great time on this movie. It's a piece of crap, but thoroughly entertaining, and best appreciated with a large crowd of drunk young men and a media player that can crank up the speed (otherwise you may fall asleep). A 1 for effort, but an 8 for sheer enjoyment.
We watched this movie on an appropriately titled "Night of Distaste", which had previously featured questionable classics such as 'Cannibal Holocaust' and 'Megashark vs. Giant Octopus'. 'Gunan' obviously tried to score in the wake of the success of 'Conan the Barbarian'. Thank God the makers had no idea what they were doing, because this was easily the best worst movie of the evening. Even 'Troll 2' seems wonderfully inspired compared to this hilarious attempt to make an epic.
It wasn't for lack of trying, though. This hilariously bad movie starts with a prologue that tries to sell the idea that millions of years of cosmic powers and evolution on Earth have been a prelude to the battle between good and evil, that is to be settled by some guys in animal skins. Wow. Ambition is one thing this movie can't be denied. They even included some stop-motion dinosaurs that must have been borrowed from a better movie (or one with an actual budget).
The action scenes are pretty unconvincing. The sword fight scenes are probably rehearsal footage. However, probably for artistic reasons, almost one third of the movie is shot in super slow-motion (or they simply had a hard time filling the running time so they chose to stretch it a bit). At one point we started to get slightly annoyed by this, and someone cranked up the movie's speed to 130%. It didn't help much. I am not kidding: we upped it to 150%, and even then the movie was still slow as hell. But this was compensated for by a complete lack of convincibility (if that is a real word): there was a shot where a fake sword was clearly bouncing off someone's back, which was still perfectly visible even at 1,5 times the speed.
From what we could tell, the movie is about two guys, destined to defeat evil, who have been raised by a tribe of women. The females make 'subtle' sexual advances all the time, but the guys don't seem to be interested at all. But don't be afraid: the only girl they are willing to fight for is captured by a hostile tribe, and stripped from her clothes for no apparent reason other than that it gives the makers a reason to film her nude while running in slow-motion. Can't have good cult without gratuitous nudity, now can we?
All in all, we had no idea what to expect but we definitely had a great time on this movie. It's a piece of crap, but thoroughly entertaining, and best appreciated with a large crowd of drunk young men and a media player that can crank up the speed (otherwise you may fall asleep). A 1 for effort, but an 8 for sheer enjoyment.