Quality Rating: ** 1/2 (out of 5)

If THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER had been drawn leaner and tauter with more precise editing and story construction, it could have been the glorious blood-and-guts spectacle it aimed for. The screenplay doesn't feel in the least bit modulated or thought through in terms of narrative -- it shoots off into byzantine directions and jumps all over the place -- and director Albert Pyun, who did marvelously kinetic work in 1997's ADRENALIN: FEAR THE RUSH, never manages to get a consistent tone or rhythym going. As a whole, this is one ragged adventure piece.

But there are some good individual sequences to be had, with some colorful bravado leaping out of nowhere, surprising us with its gory yet buoyant nature. Whatever the film lacks in terms of story and character, it more than makes up for with some very richly textured atmospherics and engagingly junky throwaway bits that hit just the right off-beat note.