Yor, the Hunter from the Future (RiffTrax)

Film Year:  1983

Genre:  Science Fiction, Adventure

Director:  Antonio Margheriti

Starring:  Reb Brown, Corinne Cléry, John Steiner, Carole André

RiffTrax Year:  2019

Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

The Movie

This film centers on Yor, a caveman with his own theme song, who saves a duo of hunters named Kala and Pag from a dinosaur.  Yor takes refuge with their tribe as Kala expresses attraction to Yor because he is cave-GORGEOUS!  But as Neanderthals attack the tribe and kidnap Kala, Yor and Pag venture to save her.  Victorious, the trio begin their own adventure, eventually stumbling upon a woman named Roah who may unlock the keys to Yor's origins and also really wants a piece of Yor, much to Kala's chagrin.  The perilous journey leads through many cavewomen who want some hot Yor action and they eventually find Yor's past and also his future.

Spoiler alert:  It could almost be argued that this is also some sort of remake of Teenage Cave Man.  Or maybe that's not a spoiler, since the word "Future" is in the title.

Yor, the Hunter from the Future is an Italian film that feels like it's trying to emulate many things simultaneously.  The film is primarily about barbarians dealing with other barbarians, which makes it a Conan the Barbarian riff, but it's hero is a dreamy blonde hunk who jams to his own rock theme tunes, which makes it feel like it's also inspired by Flash Gordon.  If those weren't enough, the film is also something of a slight callback to films about cavepeople mingling with dinosaurs, like One Million Years B.C.  The mixture between these corners of genre filmmaking is interesting to say the least and it's hard to not be amused by the odd concoction on display.  Though one can argue that the true reason the film exists is as an excuse for low angles so we can look up cave-people skirts and stare at asses.

One of those asses belongs to Reb Brown, who most will know and love from his starring role in Space Mutiny, though Yor predates that film by a good five years.  This was after his stint at playing Captain America in the late 70's in a pair of failed TV pilots, so this film nicely sandwiches in between those ripe slices of cheese in his career.  Another butt that flashes often belongs to Corinne Cléry, probably best known today for a side-role in the James Bond film Moonraker.  Brown is given a lot of women to fawn over him, while Cléry gives them all looks of jealousy, letting the entire world know that she is the only person in this movie that believes in monogamy.  But perhaps she gives in to the polygamous ways, because there is a curious scene later on in which she happily follows Yor and three young tribe girls into a secluded hideaway, which I can only assume was to set up an orgy that the movie never followed through with because they were interrupted by the village being on fire.

This all comes to a head as the movie takes a sci-fi turn in its third act, as the primitive people are given laser guns and rocketships and use them as if they've always known how to use them.  Yor is a crazy movie with a goofy premise that it more than lives up to.  While I can't promise that you'll admire the film, it's hard not to have fun with this movie as it just lets itself loose guns blazing with its meathead ambitions.  This is the type of movie Friday nights, beer, and pizza are made for!

The Trax

Cutting to the chase, the RiffTrax for Yor, the Hunter from the Future is funny.  I can safely say most will have a good time with this.  The one thing holding me back from going full praise on it is that I'm not entirely convinced that most of the heavy lifting isn't done by the film itself.  Yor is a funny movie and I find it almost impossible to not have fun with it, which means a RiffTrax of this movie is almost assuredly a worthwhile purchase.  But is the riff as funny as the movie?

I'm a little hesitant to say it is.  There are quite a few good lines in this riff that got me chuckling, I almost feel like I was laughing more consistently at the film itself than I was at the RiffTrax.  Sometimes the riffs can enhance the laughter, as there are some excellent reactions to the absurd moments of the film, the most memorable being a scene where Pag does some unexpected acrobatics at the end.  That's probably enough to recommend this riff as a purchase, because the riff is more a seasoning than an entire meal and that seasoning really brings out the flavor.

The riff is infused with a lot of jokes about Yor being a "himbo," frat boy, surfer type, which works quite well because of Yor's constant smiley cluelessness to his surroundings.  Backing him up are a load of riffs about Kala's jealousy of Yor's constant flirtations throughout the film, which is a running gag in the film through her constant stink-eye that they just give a vocalization to.  And watching them work with Pag is fun because he is an out-of-shape middle-aged man who is stuck with these sexy things and they have nothing but fun ways to point out how he is an unwelcome third wheel on Yor's sexy adventures with bikini babes.  There is definitely enough here to make this a part of your RiffTrax collection even if the movie does slightly overwhelm them.

GOOD!

Ventriloquist from the Future!

The DVD

Yor, the Hunter from the Future was released through RiffTrax's website as a part of their Toxic Box set.  Audio and video were solid, however it should be noted that since Yor's digital version offered an HD version of the video, this disc is a downgrade.  Unlike other RiffTrax DVD titles, this disc does not offer an unriffed track of the film, likely since it was edited down for their use which would make a separate audio track impractical.  There is however a bonus feature of Talkin' RiffTrax, which was a five minute discussion of the film by Mike, Kevin, and Bill that was originally released to patrons.